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Tests on beans exported to Japan find no pesticide residue

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-10-16 17:36

Chinese police are investigating the case in which beans exported to Japan reportedly caused sickness in that country, an official said in Laiyang, Shandong Province on Thursday.

Mu Xin, vice mayor of Laiyang City, Shandong Province, where Yantai Beihai Foodstuff Co Ltd is based, did not give further details on the police investigation, but said tests on samples of frozen green beans was carried out on Wednesday, just to find no sign of pesticide residue.

No abnormal signs were found in the beans' planting and processing procedures, Mu said at a news briefing.

According to Japanese media, a woman fell ill after eating the beans produced by the company, a joint venture established in 1990 by Taiwan and Japanese investors. The woman experienced numbness in her mouth after eating the beans on Sunday.

Japanese health authorities reportedly said they had detected 6,900 parts per million of organophosphate pesticide dichlorvos in the beans, or 34,500 times the maximum level the government allows for imports.

"Such a dichlorvos existence in the beans is equivalent to the level when the beans are soaked in the pesticide," said a food safety expert who refused to be named.

The contamination was suspected by Japanese police to be deliberate, according to media reports.

"The company and its production base in the northeastern Heilongjiang Province have never used such a kind of pesticide," said Lan Mingde, Yantai Beihai Foodstuff's general manager.

The company's pesticide management was in complete accord with the standards Japan requires, he said.

Lan said the incident "did not mean the company's products had problems".

He added the exported products had passed pesticide residue tests by Chinese quality and quarantine authorities, exporters and Japanese importers and no problem was detected.

The company, mainly processing frozen vegetables, stopped exports of the products to Japan. It had 85 percent of its products exported to the country. But its production was continuing.

"We are fully confident of our products," Lan said. "We hope to resume the exports as soon as possible and continue to provide Japanese consumers with safe food."

Lan said he hoped Japanese police would make a thorough investigation and find out the exact cause of the incident.

Officials from China's top quality watchdog and the Shandong provincial entry-exit inspection and quarantine bureau were also investigating the case.