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China says food product safety improving, while challenges, public concerns remainBEIJING (AP)--Chinese officials Jan. 8 claimed success in a four-month food safety campaign spurred by repeated international condemnation, and said special attention would be paid to ensure safe supplies at this summer's Beijing Olympics. Yet, results of a government survey reported by state media pointed also to continuing worries over the safety of the country's food supply, with 60.7 percent of respondents expressing concerns. "We have successfully completed our mission of improving the quality and safety," Agriculture Vice Minister Gao Hongbin told reporters. "However, the regulation of quality and safety of agricultural products is still faced with arduous challenges." Gao said the Olympic Games offer an opportunity to highlight the need to "ensure the sustained improvement of the quality and safety of agricultural products in the Chinese nation." Regulators would ratchet up measures to ensure food supplies were "sufficient in quantity, high in quality, rich in variety and safe to eat." China launched the aggressive campaign in August in the wake of safety problems found in agricultural exports from toothpaste to catfish and a pet food ingredient. The initiative--part public relations drive, part crackdown--has also focused attention on the country's chronic domestic food product safety woes. Past domestic food scares have included fake milk powder that led to the deaths of at least a dozen babies and the use of the banned cancer-causing industrial dye Sudan Red to color egg yolks. Gao said stiffened enforcement during the campaign had resulted in lowered levels of pesticide residues in farmed vegetables, as well as chemical residues in aquatic products, including malachite green, a possible cancer-causing chemical used to treat fungal infections in fish. Tougher enforcement had also decreased the use of the banned growth-promoting drug clenbuterol in pigs, Gao said. Meanwhile, illegal production, sale and application of five banned pesticides has been stopped and more than 875 tons of toxins confiscated and destroyed, he said. The crackdown also laid out plans for increased standardization in production along with increased inspections. Those will bring China up to international safety standards in three to five years, Gao said. "Our ultimate goal is to ensure that the food that the Chinese people eat is safe," Gao said. Gao also defended China's fish farming industry, the subject of critical reports by foreign media. U.S. authorities have turned away Chinese catfish, basa and dace, as well as shrimp and eel after repeated testing revealed contamination with drugs that have not been approved by the U.S. for use in farmed seafood. Gao said safeguards were in place for aquatic products and that at least 98 percent of China's aquatic exports met standards. "This is a question of common sense. Do you believe that fish can live in toxic water?" Gao said. Food safety topped the list of concerns in the 2007 survey conducted by the China Environmental Culture Promotion Association affiliated with the State Environmental Protection Agency, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. The survey was conducted over 29 provinces and autonomous regions, Xinhua said. It gave no dates for when the survey was conducted or margin of error. Other leading worries included interior paint (39.7 percent), and air pollution (25.8 percent). 1/28/08 Date: 1/23/08
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