Society

Vegetable tests show pesticides

By Li Wenfang (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-02-11 07:35

Guangdong residents say they are concerned about quality

GUANGZHOU: Food safety risks remain in Guangdong province, due to environmental pollution and man-made reasons, with vegetables and tea being highly risky in terms of pesticide residue last year.

A total of 21,352 tests were carried out in Guangdong last year in 16 food categories for 90 possible pollutants and seven pathogenic bacteria, according to a report jointly released yesterday by six provincial government departments, including health, agriculture, industry and commerce, and food and drug supervision.

Pyrethroid was the main pesticide residue found in vegetables and tea.

Excessive aluminum levels were found in steamed buns and deep-fried food, indicating the abuse of alum. The report suggests people eat less of this food.

Nitrates were far higher than the standard in cooked meat, as well as rare earth elements in tea.

The quality of aquatic products improved, with 94.8 percent of the samples meeting the standard in antibiotic residue, 2.4 percentage points higher than in the previous year.

Only 73.17 percent of the samples of dishes from restaurants met the hygienic standard.

Sixty-seven pathogenic bacteria were tested in meat, aquatic products, instant food, baby food or pasteurized milk, with 16.54 percent of the samples testing positive for bacteria.

Salmonella and escherichia coli were found in some samples of raw meat, staphylococcus aureus in ice cream, cakes and fruit juice, enterobacter sakazakii in baby cereal, campylobacter jejuni in raw poultry and bibrio parahemolyticus in aquatic products.

"I am not satisfied with food supervision departments and am worried about food safety," said Lu Cizhang, a college student in Guangzhou, citing repeated food safety cases even after the melamine milk scandal.

Food safety authorities should make routine checks on food, with clear guidance on safety, including food materials used by restaurants, said Nie Lihua, a civil servant in Guangzhou.

A 37-year-old woman shopping at a supermarket in Guangzhou, who identified herself as Wu, said she prefers to buy vegetables labeled as pollution-free at supermarkets, which cost much more and take up a big portion of her family's daily expense on food.

The province recorded 11 major food poisoning cases last year, effecting 520 people, including six killed.

Bacteria were the main causes for food poisoning and poisonous plants were the most fatal.

Special tests were carried out before the coming Spring Festival, with 92.4 percent of the 1,770 samples of vegetables and 1,646 raw meat samples passing in the areas of pesticide and drugs.

About 86 percent of the 360 samples of tea, meat products, canned food, sugar, preserved vegetables and jelly met the standard.

In the 270 samples taken in seven cities, 82.5 percent of edible oil, 81.4 percent of extruded snacks, chocolate and deep-fried food, and 89.2 percent of preserved food and cooked meat met the standard.

The provincial government stepped up the supervision of food safety last year, setting up 27 monitoring points in prefecture-level cities and six counties, according to the report.

The largest provincial-level economy with the largest restaurant industry in the nation, Guangdong was home to 133,362 restaurants, 16,907 food-producing companies and 197,803 food-selling firms last year.

Li Jing and Chen Jialing contributed to the story

(China Daily 02/11/2010 page5)