By Zhu Zhe (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-08-04 17:43

The statement confirmed that a vice-minister-level bilateral meeting on food and feed safety had been scheduled for the middle of this month.

However, the AQSIQ's deputy director Wei Chuanzhong said in the statement that "China will not evade our problems, but we also do not agree to playing up the situation regardless of the facts".

"Food safety is not only China's concern but also a problem for all countries in the world," he said.

AQSIQ figures show that more than 99 percent of Chinese food exports to the US in the past three years had met quality standards, about the same, or even higher, than the equivalent figure for US food exports to China.

On Friday, the AQSIQ also announced that harmful bacteria and illegal dyes had been found in aquatic products and tinned fruit from Indonesia.

The announcement came after an AQSIQ notification on Tuesday that Chinese quarantine officials had seized two tons of dried banana chips from the Philippines because they contained too much of the preservative sulfur dioxide.

AQSIQ figures show that in the first half of the year, drug residues, excessive amounts of food additives and harmful bacteria had been detected in 121 food shipments from Indonesia.

Substandard food products had also been found recently in 13 shipments from the Philippines.

The unsafe products were either returned or destroyed, the AQSIQ said. It also ordered local authorities to strengthen quarantine measures on food from the two countries.

(China Daily 08/04/2007 page1)

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