A quality testing on sweet dumplings (named yuanxiao in Chinese) has been carried out throughout Beijing for several days to guarantee the food's quality.
No degenerative sweet dumplings have been detected after the pervasive testing in stores, supermarkets, shops and even road vendors' stands in urban and suburban areas.
The testing also involved the city's main dumpling manufactories. A total of 87 kinds of products have been checked and evaluated in terms of weight, colors and tastes with no substandard dumplings found.
However, some small or medium-sized stores are selling dumplings in unqualified packages, which might lead to hygienic problems, experts said.
The food, made of glutinous rice flour with different stuffing, is eaten as a traditional food around the 15th of the first month on Chinese lunar calendar, known as the Lantern Festival.
Workers in Daoxiangcun Group has been starting work at three o'clock these days, so as to sell fresh dumplings to consumers in the morning, said Chi Xiangdong, assistant general manager of the group.
They also required the glutinous rice flour to be used in 24 hours the moment from it's ground, Chi said.
(Xinhua News Agency February 27, 2002)
