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China revokes license of companies entangled with tainted wheat gluten exports
20/7/2007 16:57

China has revoked the business licenses of two companies that exported wheat protein tainted with toxic chemicals and banned them from export and import, a top quality control official said in Beijing today.
The Xuzhou Anying Biotechnology Development Company in Jiangsu Province and the Binzhou Futian Biotechnology Co, Ltd in Shandong Province have "unlawfully added melamine in some of its protein products exported to the United States," said Li Changjiang, director of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, at a press conference.
The tainted wheat gluten has been blamed for dog and cat deaths in North America.
Investigations showed that the two companies managed to get go-ahead at the customs and evade quality check-ups by labeling the products as chemical ingredients, said Li.
Chemical ingredients are not subject to compulsory inspection in China.
He said the Xuzhou company has exported a total of 1,033.4 tons of wheat protein to the US since its establishment in July 2006, and the Binzhou company exported 336 tons of rice protein and 24 tons of corn protein to the US in addition to some products to South Africa and Switzerland.
The two companies have constituted adulteration by adding melamine to the wheat protein and rice protein in a bid to meet the contractual protein content requirements, Li said.
"The behavior severely violated the country's feed quality and safety standard," he said.
Li said the local public security authorities had launched an investigation into the cases and had detained related company officials. The two companies have been closed down.
The administration said earlier it found no further melamine-contaminated products after checking 399 samples from 173 exporters nationwide.



Xinhua