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Chinese government: All exports are safe
Whew! Well, I guess we can stop checking now. I was worried there for a minute. EFLBEIJING (AP) China insisted Thursday that its exports are safe, issuing a rare direct commentary as international fears over Chinese products spread. Wang Xinpei, a spokesman for the Commerce Ministry, said China "has paid great attention" to the issue, especially food products because it concerns people's health. CRACKDOWN: China shuts 180 food plants for tainted ingredients Hey, this was a link in the original article "It can be said that the quality of China's exports all are guaranteed," Wang told reporters at a regularly scheduled briefing. The statement was among Beijing's most public assertions of the safety of its exports since they came under scrutiny earlier this year with the deaths of dog and cats in North America blamed on Chinese wheat gluten tainted with the chemical melamine. Earlier this month, a spokesman for North Carolina's Department of Correction said Pacific brand toothpaste was distributed to prisoners who could not afford to buy a name brand at prison stores. The tubes were taken away after trace amounts of DEG was found in them. Not surprised, corrections is a big market for Chinese products because they buy the cheapest of everything with no regard for quality - they're selling to a captive audience. And let me guess, the tubes were taken away and no replacements offered. On Wednesday, three Japanese importers recalled millions of Chinese-made travel toothpaste sets, many sold to inns and hotels, after they were found to contain as much as 6.2% of diethylene glycol. Wang, the Commerce Ministry spokesman, said Chinese experts have already "explained the situation." He gave no details, although the country's quality watchdog has in past cited tests from 2000 that it said showed toothpaste containing less than 15.6% diethylene glycol was harmless to humans. That's the explanation? Great! We can all go home now. Also Wednesday, Beijing police raided a village where live pigs were force-fed wastewater to boost their weight before slaughter, state media reported. Plastic pipes had been forced down the pigs' throats and villagers had pumped each 220-pound pig with 44 pounds of wastewater, the Beijing Morning Post reported Thursday. You can't make this stuff up. Paperwork showed the pigs were headed for one of Beijing's main slaughterhouses and stamps on their ears indicated that they already had been through quarantine and inspection, the paper said. Suspects escaped during the raid and no arrests were made, it said. In other words, the authorities were in on the scam and had provided the inspection tags. The case underscored China's chaotic food safety situation, where manufacturers and distributors often use unapproved additives, falsify expiration dates or find other methods of cutting corners to eke out small profits. Yes, they make quite small extra profits by endangering people's safety. A few thousand RMB, that's all. Posted by: gromky 2007-06-29 |
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