Online Stock Trading - China Says It Still Has a Problem With Food Contamination
The Chinese Vice Minister of Health, Chen Xiaohong has said that Chinese dairy products, meat, flour, and a range of other foods are still dangerously contaminated with illegal additives. There has been a crackdown to try and clean the food production up, but the health minister said some food and liquor makers are still using banned additives.
"Some food businesses still lack a grasp of the harmfulness and severity of illegal additives," Chen said. "Their commitment to correcting this is not high."
China's problems with tainted foods and medicines came under the international spotlight from 2007 through a string of scares over toxins in exports.
Public worries over tainted foods and medicines and toothpaste and toys came to a head last year, when it was discovered that the Sanlu Group and a number of other dairy producers were adding the industrial chemical melamine to raw milk.
Official figures say that 6 children in China died from drinking infant formula with melamine in it, and nearly 300,000 fell ill. Unofficially the figures are said to be much higher.
The Chinese government has dealt with 1,274 cases of illegal use of food additives since late 2008.
Four people have been arrested.
Chen said the crackdown is not enough and some companies have still not mended their ways.
"The illegal use of additives over a long time in some sectors has still not been effectively halted," he said.
China has already sentenced the former chairwoman of the Sanlu Group to life imprisonment in connection with the melamine-tainted milk scandal.
The honesty of the Chinese Vice Minister of Health is very welcome but it hardly inspires onfidence in Chinese exports.
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