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10/31/2007

China Arrests 774 in Food and Drug Crackdown

SHANGHAI, Oct. 29 — The Chinese government said today that it had arrested 774 people over the past two months as part of a nationwide crackdown on the production and sale of tainted food, drugs and agricultural products.

Government regulators hailed the arrests as a major step forward for food and drug safety, and said the “criminal suspects” were detained during nationwide inspections of thousands of restaurants, food and drug production facilities and wholesale food markets.

Determined to counter accusations that it has been producing and even exporting tainted goods, China vowed earlier this year to revamp its food and drug safety regulations and to close down illegal manufacturers and exporters.

Last summer, the government even executed the former head of the nation’s food and drug administration, Zheng Xiaoyu, after he was convicted of accepting bribes and failing to properly supervise food and drug companies, some of which had sold counterfeit drugs.

But the government also acknowledged today that problems remain. As of earlier this month, it said, only 82 percent of the food tested in medium and large cities in China met food safety standards, and nearly 30 percent of the restaurants surveyed by regulators had failed food safety inspections.

The arrests came after nearly a year of high-profile recalls involving everything from tainted pet food ingredients to problem toys, and after repeated promises on the part of government regulators to crack down on tainted goods and restore confidence in the Made in China label.

The government also said this week that since July, inspectors working at Chinese ports have destroyed or recalled over 1,000 tons of fake products.

China is also working with American and European regulators to cooperate on product safety and to put into place new methods to detect harmful products.

The government has called this a “special battle” to save the Made in China label.

The full article can be found at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/29/world/asia/30yuan.html?_r=2&hp&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

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