China Says Food Safety Under Control

By AUDRA ANG

BEIJING – China’s problems with food safety are not major and should not be overblown, an official said Tuesday, in the latest push to alleviate international concerns over its products.

Li Dongsheng, vice minister for the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, said China has over the years developed “very good, very complete methods” to regulate product safety. Questions have arisen over China’s safety checks amid increasing number of tainted items have been found both inside and outside the country.

“Yes, there are now some problems of food safety of Chinese products. However, they are not serious. We should not exaggerate those problems,” Li told about 130 foreign and domestic reporters on a trip organized by the State Council, China’s Cabinet.

The event, which also included a rare visit to a food safety test lab and a storehouse for goods confiscated during anti-piracy raids, was arranged to show off China’s quality measures and burnish the country’s battered image.

“We do believe this very important for the people,” Li said at a press conference at the beginning of the four-hour trip.

“We are very concerned about food safety in China and very concerned about protecting the rights of consumers,” he said.

At the Beijing food lab, technicians wearing white coats tested packages of spring rolls, dumplings and other frozen foods for toxic chemicals. Others sat at computers analyzing results.

In another room, a huge variety of fake products displayed, from Wrigley’s chewing gum, Shiseido skin care products, Levi’s jeans and motorized bicycles.

China’s poor safety record has increasingly come under the spotlight as its goods make their way to global markets. Major buyers the United States, Japan, and the European Union have pushed for Beijing to improve inspections.

The pressure has increased in the past few months as U.S. inspectors have banned or turned away Chinese exports including wheat gluten tainted with the chemical melamine, which has been blamed for dog and cat deaths in North America. Toxic monkfish and frozen eel and juice made with unsafe color additives have also been on the list of unacceptable products.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has also stopped all imports of Chinese toothpaste to test for a deadly chemical reportedly found in tubes sold in Australia, the Dominican Republic and Panama.

But Li said that developed countries also have similar problems with food safety and insisted that China was treating the issue with concern.

“There is now largely no problem with food safety. It is an issue the people care about greatly,” Li said. “So if there is a small problem, it becomes a big problem for us. So basically for now we can guarantee food safety.”

Li said the government has a variety of procedures in place to ensure safe food production. These include a food safety hot line set up in 1999 that has grown into a surveillance network of local groups and government bodies.

Widespread inspections of department stores, supermarkets, outdoor markets and wholesale markets, have been carried out by local Administrations of Industry and Commerce, the State Council said in a statement.

It said that last year, 4.6 million inquires, complaints and reports were received from consumers.

The statement also said that 16,000 tons of unsafe food products were ordered withdrawn from the market in 2006. It did not give details of the products or why they were withdrawn.

According to the State Council statement, the surveillance network has also expanded to focus on consumer protection “but also about the protection of the exclusive right to use protected trademarks, supervision of the safety of marketed foods, advertising regulations and the maintenance of fair competition.”

China has long been the world’s leading source of fake medicines and drugs, illegally copied music, movies, designer clothes and other goods. U.S. officials say its exports cost legitimate producers worldwide up to $50 billion a year in lost potential sales.

On Monday, state media said authorities were investigating the widespread sale of fake blood protein to hospitals and pharmacies, a possibly life-threatening practice.