China rubbishes contamination allegations
China has accused the international media of raising unnecessary alarm over the country's drug and food exports as increasing number of China's exports are being rejected due to contamination. "One company's problem doesn't make it a country's problem. If some food products are below standard, you can't say all the country's food is unsafe,' argued Li Changjiang, China's minister for general administration of quality supervision, inspection and quarantine.
Lately, a growing number of Chinese products have been blacklisted by the us for containing potentially toxic chemicals and other adulterants. In retaliation, China recently banned us imports of chicken feet and pigs' ears to the country. The ban has affected imports of some of the biggest us meat producers like Tyson Foods, the world's biggest meat processor, and Cargill, the largest us agricultural company.
Meanwhile, the Chinese government has made new regulations for the registration and management of drugs to reform its ailing drug regulatory system. The regulations were announced on July 11, a day after the former head of the country's state food and drug administration, Zheng Xiaoyu, was executed for taking bribes and approving unsafe products. In another such check, China also banned the manufacture of toothpaste with diethylene glycol, a poisonous industrial solvent.