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
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