ID :
15151
Wed, 08/06/2008 - 19:20
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/15151
The shortlink copeid
China says dumplings caused poisoning in China, too
BEIJING, Aug. 6 Kyodo - China admitted Wednesday that domestically made frozen meat dumplings that caused food poisoning in Japan because of their pesticide content have also triggered the same problem in China.
The admission by the Chinese Foreign Ministry may be a key in solving a dispute between the two countries over whether the pesticide, methamidophos, made its way into the dumplings in China or Japan.
''There was a dumplings food poisoning case that took place in China in mid-June,'' the Foreign Ministry's spokesperson's office said in a statement faxed to Kyodo News.
''The Chinese government places great importance on the incident. The public security authorities are currently investigating with their utmost effort,'' the statement said.
The statement was in response to a question posed by fax on whether food poisoning had occurred in China from dumplings that were recalled by Tianyang Food in Hebei Province from the Chinese market after the cases in Japan came to light.
The quality control authorities in charge of exports said they are looking into the information.
''We learned about that for the first time through Japanese media reports. We are currently looking into it,'' the press office of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said.
Informed sources in Japan said earlier in the day that the unknown number of Chinese people suffered food poisoning in June after eating the dumplings, which were pulled from the Chinese market but were later redistributed.
Methamidophos was found in the dumplings, which never left China, according to the sources. It was unclear how the dumplings came to be resold on the market.
The same pesticide was detected in Japanese food poisoning cases which left 10 people from three families sick in December 2007 and January 2008.
Japanese and Chinese investigative authorities have been bitterly divided over where the contamination of the dumplings took place.
The Japanese police say there was very little possibility of that happening in Japan, as the substance was not made in Japan, but their Chinese counterparts have claimed that it did not happen in China.
The admission by the Chinese Foreign Ministry may be a key in solving a dispute between the two countries over whether the pesticide, methamidophos, made its way into the dumplings in China or Japan.
''There was a dumplings food poisoning case that took place in China in mid-June,'' the Foreign Ministry's spokesperson's office said in a statement faxed to Kyodo News.
''The Chinese government places great importance on the incident. The public security authorities are currently investigating with their utmost effort,'' the statement said.
The statement was in response to a question posed by fax on whether food poisoning had occurred in China from dumplings that were recalled by Tianyang Food in Hebei Province from the Chinese market after the cases in Japan came to light.
The quality control authorities in charge of exports said they are looking into the information.
''We learned about that for the first time through Japanese media reports. We are currently looking into it,'' the press office of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said.
Informed sources in Japan said earlier in the day that the unknown number of Chinese people suffered food poisoning in June after eating the dumplings, which were pulled from the Chinese market but were later redistributed.
Methamidophos was found in the dumplings, which never left China, according to the sources. It was unclear how the dumplings came to be resold on the market.
The same pesticide was detected in Japanese food poisoning cases which left 10 people from three families sick in December 2007 and January 2008.
Japanese and Chinese investigative authorities have been bitterly divided over where the contamination of the dumplings took place.
The Japanese police say there was very little possibility of that happening in Japan, as the substance was not made in Japan, but their Chinese counterparts have claimed that it did not happen in China.
