ASIA BRIEFING:
DURING A visit to Beijing last week, EU
agriculture commissioner Dacian Ciolos was exploring food safety, of prime
importance in China and even cited as a potential threat to the government.
Witness
the outpouring of online anger last week after China’s biggest milk producer by
revenue, Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group, recalled baby formula tainted
with what it described as “unusual” levels of mercury.
China’s
product quality watchdog detected the mercury in several batches of Yili baby
formula, which is sold nationwide. Irony of ironies, the recall took place
during China’s Food Safety Week and a day after the cabinet introduced fresh
measures to tighten supervision of the sector.
The
dairy industry in China is struggling to restore consumer confidence after a
raft of scandals, the worst of which was shortly after the Olympics in 2008
when milk laced with an industrial chemical killed at least six children and
made nearly 300,000 sick.
Twenty-two
companies were found to have sold formula made from milk contaminated with
melamine. The government executed two people involved in the scandal.
It also
set up a food safety commission led by vice premier Li Keqiang. He has called
for harsh punishments against violations of food safety laws.
In
December, products from Mengniu dairy company were destroyed after they were
found to contain aflatoxin, which can cause severe liver damage.
During
his visit here, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Simon Coveney
repeatedly stressed how Irish producers could develop international business
opportunities on the basis of our strong reputation for quality, sustainability
and, the magic word, safety.
Meanwhile,
China’s astronauts are being fed “specially produced” milk, where the cows are
first quarantined for a month to allow all drugs in their bodies to be
excreted, before producing milk specifically for the astronauts.
CLIFFORD
COONAN
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