A team of investigators from Beijing yesterday examined a "pollution-free" production base in North China's Hebei Province, which allegedly produced vegetables contaminated by banned pesticides.

The squad from the Ministry of Agriculture has joined the provincial authorities to do on-the-spot checks in Zhangbei County, a major vegetable supplier to Beijing, local sources told China Daily yesterday.

Several tabloid newspapers in Beijing and China Central Television have reported since the weekend that vegetable growers in Zhangbei are playing foul and that some tainted vegetables might have been sold to cities outside Hebei.

A Zhangbei County government official, who also refused to be named, claimed that the media reports had been hyped up.

However, An Moping - director of the Hebei Provincial Management Office for Pollution-Free Farm Produce - yesterday said that the Zhangbei production base had not been independently assessed and certified and was actually a self-proclaimed "pollution-free" producer.

For this reason, An said his office will "soon" launch a drive to rectify its certification work for pollution-free agricultural production bases in the province.

Food safety has been a paramount concern of the Ministry of Agriculture, which initiated the national Pollution-Free Food Action Plan in April 2001, said Luo Bin of the ministry's newly established Farm Produce Quality and Safety Centre.

Establishing a "pollution-free" food certification regime is at the core of the action plan, which highlights efforts to prevent food pollution at the very source of production, Luo said.

For this purpose, the ministry has, in conjunction with with the Certification and Accreditation Administration, compiled voluminous regulatory codes on the agricultural production environment, production procedures and product quality control.

However serious the Zhangbei scandal turns out to be, it has made clear that the codes should be implemented to the letter and that the certification of both production bases and farm produce should be standardized, Luo said.

Jiang Deming - a deputy to the 10th National People's Congress, China's top legislature - yesterday said the Zhangbei case and other food-related problems have underscored the need for a bill on the quality and safety of agricultural products to be drafted and enacted as soon as possible.

The lawmaker from East China's Jiangsu Province said such a draft law has been included on this year's legislative agenda.

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