A campaign last month by quality-control officials led to more
than 700 toy manufacturers in Guangdong Province having their
export quality certificates suspended or revoked.
A number of other factories have been told to renovate their
facilities, the Guangdong quality technology supervision
administration said yesterday.
The administration con-ducted a province-wide investigation into
the quality and safety of toys, food and other products. It spent
15 million yuan (US$1.9 million) and dispatched more than 200,000
officials.
The investigation covered agricultural products, food,
restaurants, medicine, pork and a range of export products
including toys.
Officials investigated 1,726 toy factories, almost 85 percent of
the province's total, that had obtained quality certifications for
exporting products.
Because of various quality problems, 764 factories had their
certificates revoked or suspended.
A further 690 were ordered to renovate their manufacturing
facilities and improve product quality within a set period of
time.
"More than 99 percent of export products from Guangdong are
qualified." Lai Tiansheng, director of the administration,
said.
The quality of pork is also a major concern for most local
people.
Lai said investigations found only a small portion of the pork
in the market had problems. Bad goods were confiscated and
destroyed.
By the end of September, 1,923 designated pig slaughterhouses
were operating in the province, 150 of which were shut down by
investigators in September.
The investigators also checked 56,154 restaurants and cafeterias
and found 98.54 percent purchased their pork from designated
slaughterhouses.
"We are happy most pork consumers are using meat from designated
slaughterhouses. That means our investigation of slaughterhouses
can effectively block the distribution of problem pork," Lai
said.
For food processing and circulation, the campaign allocated
"greater manpower" to investigate private and small-sized food
processing workshops and markets.
For restaurants, investigators targeted smaller operations that
do not have operating licenses and sanitary certificates.
"The campaign has broken down a large number of unqualified
product manufacturers and sellers. But the investigation work is
long-term task," Lai said.
(China Daily November 1, 2007)