Used chopsticks sold
2007-08-22 10:11
Beijing - A Beijing factory recycled used
chopsticks and sold up to 100 000 pairs a day without any form of disinfection, a newspaper said on Wednesday, the latest in a string of food and product safety scares.
Counterfeit, shoddy and dangerous products are widespread
in China, whose exports have been rocked in recent months by a
spate of safety scandals, ranging from pet food to medicine,
tyres, toothpaste and toys.
Officials raided the factory and seized about half a
million pairs of recycled disposable bamboo chopsticks and a
packaging machine, the Beijing News said.
The owner, identified only by his surname Wu, said he had
sold the recycled chopsticks for 0.04 yuan a pair and made an
average of about 1 000 yuan a day.
Wu, who had no licence to sell the goods, said he had sold
100 000 pairs a day when business was good.
China, on track to overtake the United States this year as
the world's second-largest exporter, lacks a basic food safety
law and the manpower to enforce food and drug safety
regulations at home or for export. Imports are generally
carefully scrutinised.
A lack of business ethics and a spiritual vacuum after
China embraced economic reforms in the late 1970s have been
blamed for unscrupulous business practices and corruption.
In Guangzhou, capital of booming Guangdong province in
south China, Mayor Zhang Guangning vowed to bankrupt serious
violators of food and product safety.
The Hong Kong owner of a Guangdong manufacturer at the
centre of a recall of Chinese-made toys by US giant Mattel
had committed suicide, according to Hong Kong media.
In the latest in a series of tit-for-tat measures, China
has accused the United States of exporting substandard soybean
shipments to China and requested "effective measures" be taken.