China and Japan have sufficient wisdom to properly resolve the dumpling poisoning case in Japan, said Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Liu Jianchao on Thursday.
"I believe the incident will not have impact on the upcoming high-level visit between the two countries," Liu told a routine news conference in Beijing.
Liu said the incident was an "isolated case" rather than a systematic food safety problem, judging from investigation results.
He said China has taken a highly-responsible attitude toward the issue and carried out investigations immediately after learning the dumpling poisoning case in Japan.
He called on both sides to form a joint team to make further investigations into the case.
"Finding out the truth is vital to rebuilding Japanese consumers' confidence in Chinese products and to normal economic and trade cooperation between the two countries," Liu said.
Japanese media reports said 10 Japanese people fell ill in December and January after consuming frozen meat dumplings produced by Tianyang Food Plant based in north China's Hebei Province.
Japanese authorities found the insecticide methamidophos in the vomit of those poisoned and in food packages at their houses.
Tests, however, showed 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.
(Xinhua News Agency February 15, 2008)
