Oh boy 
China uncovers thousands of dangerous foods
Posted: 27 June 2007 1202 hrs
Photos 1 of 1
A laboratory worker checks food samples at the Biosafety lab in
Beijing
BEIJING: Industrial oils, wax, chemicals that can cause cancer and
many other dangerous ingredients have been found in thousands of
widely consumed foods in China, state press reported on
Wednesday.
A nationwide investigation by China's food quality watchdog found
products such as baby milk powder, rice, flour, meat, biscuits,
seafood, soy sauce and sweets had been contaminated.
More than 23,000 tainted or sub-standard foods were found and 180
food manufacturers closed in the crackdown from December last year
to May, in what is believed to represent only a fraction of the
problem.
"These are not isolated cases," the China Daily newspaper quoted
Han Yi, a director with the General Administration of Quality
Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, as saying as he unveiled
the findings on Tuesday.
The watchdog's probe focused mainly on China's countryside and Han
said investigators now intended to turn their attention onto the
cities.
The announcement of the investigation's findings come as China
faces unprecedented international scrutiny over the quality of its
food imports and other goods that have caused harm to buyers
overseas.
Reports in the United States of tainted pet foods, dangerous toys,
drugs, fish, cosmetics and other products from China have led to a
spate of recalls and bans there.
In Panama, at least 80 people are believed to have died from taking
a cough syrup contaminated with a toxic substance imported from
China.
In the investigation by China's quality watchdog, one of the
industrial products found in foods was formaldehyde, a chemical
more famously used to embalm people, according to the China
Daily.
Other industrial materials included paraffin wax and various dyes
including malachite green, which can be carcinogenic, were also
found.
Han said most
of the sources of the contaminated foods were small, unlicensed
food processing plants that employed fewer than 10 people.
However, about 75 percent of China's one million food-processing
plants are small operations, according to the quality
watchdog.
