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- Quality of Chinese farm produce higher than ever, says agriculture minister
Date: 4-Sep-2007 Sources: (People's Daily)
The quality of Chinese agricultural products is higher than ever before, Minister of Agriculture Sun Zhengcai has said.
The average acceptance rate regarding pesticide residues in vegetables was 93.6 percent in the first half of 2007; those regarding clenbuterol hydrochloride contamination and sulfa drug residues in livestock products was 98.8 percent and 99.0 percent respectively, Sun said in a statement posted on the ministry's website on Monday.
He added that more than 99 percent of Chinese food exports to the United States, the European Union and Japan met quality standards over the last four years.
'Most Chinese farm products are safe and consumers don't need to worry when eating them,' he said.
China has basically put in place a monitoring system covering the processing and circulation processes of food products in a bid to bring safe food all the way from the farmland to the dinner table, the minister said.
The Ministry of Agriculture has launched harsh crack-downs on banned toxic chemicals in farm products including Sudan Red dye and clenbuterol hydrochloride in feedstuff and malachite green and nitrofuran in aquatic products, Sun noted.
The ministry also intensified inspections on banned veterinary medicines as well as on pork production to ensure only pigs that have been earmarked and checked for diseases can reach customers.
China has been hit by a series of food scares in recent years ranging from parasite-infested snails, ducks and hens that were fed cancer-causing Sudan Red dye to make their egg yolks red, to pet food made of melamine-tainted wheat protein that killed scores of dogs and cats in the United States.
On Friday China put into effect its first recall system for unsafe food products, which will require manufacturers to stop production and sales, notify vendors and customers and report to authorities when product defects are found.
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