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BIZCHINA / Center

China, US to discuss food safety

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-07-18 16:15

China and the United States will hold a meeting in Beijing to discuss the
detention of four kinds of China's seafood exports by the US and the
setting up of a collaboration mechanism on food safety, a senior Chinese
quality control official said on Wednesday.

The five-day consultation between Chinese food safety authorities and the
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the United States is scheduled to
start on July 31, said Li Yuanping, an official in charge of the safety
of import and export products at the General Administration of Quality
Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ).

Li also said that the recent suspension of sale of chicken feet, pig ears
and other animal products from seven US companies was conducted according
to a memorandum of understanding signed between the administration and
the US Department of Agriculture.

The meat was contaminated with salmonella, additives and veterinary
drugs, according to the administration.

In response to criticism from overseas, he said that China was not
counteracting overseas complaints by picking holes in imports into the
country.

It's not the first time China has suspended meat imports from the US --
the administration suspended contaminated meat imports from 15 US
companies in 2006, Li said.

Meat imports from 13 of those companies have resumed, according to Li.

The FDA, under the US Department of Health and Human Services, said on
June 28 it would detain three types of Chinese farm-raised fish --
catfish, basa and dace -- as well as shrimp and eel unless suppliers
could prove the shipments contained no harmful residues unapproved in the
U.S. for use in farmed seafood.

Li Changjiang, the top quality control official with AQSIQ, urged the US
to "properly deal with the problem as soon as possible" during a
telephone conversation with US Health and Human Services Secretary
Michael Leavitt, adding that an "indiscriminate" ban of all exports of
such Chinese aquatic products was "unacceptable".

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