A senior Chinese quality control official said Wednesday there
was no possibility of deliberate contamination of dumplings on the
China side as the plant was strictly managed.
China would continue to step up checkups in the production,
packaging, and transport of food products made by Tianyang Food
Plant, said Wei Chuanzhong, deputy chief of the General
Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection, and Quarantine
(AQSIQ).
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Japanese police have so far confirmed at least 10 people fell
sick after eating dumplings laced with the highly toxic
organophosphate pesticide called methamidophos made by Tianyang
Food in northern China's Hebei Province.
Investigations by Japanese police indicated the poisoning case
was more likely a deliberate one, rather than a food safety scare,
Wei said.
China was ready for sincere cooperation and joint investigation
with Japan to seek the truth behind the poisoning case, amid
efforts to safeguard Japanese people's safety and bilateral
strategic relations, he noted.
"China is willing to work with Japan to set up a long-term food
safety mechanism between the two neighbors. We hope investigators
could soon find the truth and publicize it to reduce the damage to
the bilateral relations," he said after meeting a four-member
Japanese investigation team in Beijing.
Wei said he hoped the Japanese instigators would tell exactly
what they saw in China after going back to guide more impartial and
rational media report, instead of reporting exaggeration on
groundless speculation.
A joint investigation team of China and Japan said early
Wednesday morning they had not detected abnormality in the Tianyang
Food after a half-day investigation tour to the company.
"The plant is very clean and well managed, and no abnormality
has been detected," Harashima Taiji, head of the Japanese
investigation team, told the press. Japan would conduct further
analysis based on information and data collected in the plant, he
said.
Taiji added the Japanese side hoped to get more support in later
investigation after touring the plant and getting all the materials
it wished to check.
Japanese media reported nearly 300 people have sought medical
treatment, with one girl in serious condition, since a Japanese
company said last week frozen meat dumplings produced at the
Tianyang Food contained insecticide.
Japanese authorities found an insecticide called methamidophos
in the vomit of the poisoned people and food packages at their
houses.
But tests showed that the rest of the dumplings from the same
batches sold in Japan, totaling more than 2,000 packages, were
safe. So were all the other products made by the Chinese company,
Wang Daning, director of AQSIQ's department of food import and
export safety, said earlier.
Earlier report said while suspicious clues such as small holes
on some packages remain inexplicable, it's currently still unknown
whether the food products were contaminated during the production
and transportation process in China.
(Xinhua News Agency?February 7, 2008)