Others News
- 180 food plants shut down
Date: 28-Jun-2007 Sources: (Shenzhen Daily)
THE country has closed 180 food factories after inspectors found industrial chemicals being used in products from candy to seafood, State media said yesterday.
The closures came amid a nationwide crackdown on shoddy and dangerous products launched in December that also uncovered use of recycled or expired food, the China Daily said.
Formaldehyde, illegal dyes, and industrial wax were found being used to make candy, pickles, crackers and seafood, it said, citing Han Yi, an official with the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, which is responsible for food safety.
'These are not isolated cases,'Han, director of the administration's quality control and inspection department, was quoted as saying.Han's admission was significant because the administration has said in the past that safety violations were the work of a few rogue operators, a claim which is likely part of a strategy to protect China's billions of dollars (euros) of food exports.
International concerns over China's food safety problems ballooned this year after high levels of toxins and industrial chemicals were found in exported products.
Authorities in China have pushed for more stringent controls and increased publicity of their efforts to control the problem.
Han said most of the offending manufacturers were small, unlicensed food plants with fewer than 10 employees, and all had been shut down. The China Daily said 75 percent of China's estimated 1 million food processing plants are small and privately owned.
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