|
China shuts down firms
20/07/2007 12:18 - (SA)
Beijing - China's product safety watchdog said on Friday that it had revoked the business licences of several firms at the heart of food and drug safety scares and banned them from exporting their products.
The actions by the General Administration for Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine were the latest in a series of moves by Beijing to try to clean up its drug and food industries.
Several substandard Chinese exports recently had been rejected around the world as dangerous. The administration said it had pulled the business licence of Taixing Glycerin Factory.
The company in eastern China had been accused of exporting diethylene glycol - a thickening agent used antifreeze - and fraudulently passing it off as 99.5% pure glycerine that eventually ended up in Panamanian medicines that killed at least 51 people.
Unlawfully added melamine
The administration said: "Its workshop and facilities have been closed down by the Jiangsu province and its business licence revoked."
It said the Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development Co Ltd, also in Jiangsu province, had its licence revoked, its offices and workshops closed, and its right to import and export taken away.
According to the administration: "It unlawfully added melamine in some of its products, which could not meet the protein content requirement set in the contracts."
Melamine-tainted wheat gluten from the company ended up in pet food in North America blamed for the deaths of dozens of dogs and cats.
The watchdog's statement said: "This behaviour of adulteration severely violated the feed quality and safety standards."
According to the administration, the business licence for Binzhou Futian Biology Technology Co Ltd was also revoked and its offices and workshops closed.
Tried to avoid inspections
It said: "It added melamine in some of its products, which could not meet the protein content requirement ... constituting severe adulteration." Binzhou Futain had also tried to avoid inspections.
Melamine, used in plastics, fertilisers and flame retardants, had no nutritional value, but was high in nitrogen, making products to which it was added appear to be higher in protein.
China had also accused the companies of illegally mislabelling their exported products to avoid inspections. The administration said legal action was being taken against managers of the companies, but did not give any details.
Fears abroad over Chinese-made drugs were sparked last year by the deaths of dozens of people in Panama who took medicine contaminated with diethylene glycol.
This year, in the United States and Canada, pet food containing wheat gluten tainted with melamine had been blamed for the deaths of dogs and cats.
Since then, US authorities had turned away or recalled toxic fish, juice containing unsafe colour additives and popular toy trains decorated with lead paint.
|
News
