Don’t politicize dumplings poisoning incident

BEIJING—Criticism over China’s frozen dumpling exports to Japan could worsen the bilateral trade environment and cause unnecessary disputes over other foods, a Chinese researcher said on Sunday.
Tang Chunfeng, an expert on Japanese issues with the Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce, said that he was very concerned about the dumpling scare. “Since the real cause is still under investigation, I don’t think it wise to blame the Chinese side for it,” he said. Nearly 300 people have sought medical treatment, with one girl in serious condition, since a Japanese company last week said that frozen meat dumplings produced at the Tianyang Food Plant in Hebei Province contained insecticide, according to Japanese media reports.
Japanese authorities found an insecticide called methamidophos in the vomit of the poisoned people and food packages at their houses. But tests showed that the rest of the dumplings from the same batches sold in Japan, totaling more than 2,000 packages, were safe. So were all the other products made by the Chinese company, said Wang Daning, an official at the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine.
Cheng Fang, the Hebei Provincial Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau director, said that China had banned the use of the pesticide in question (methamidophos) since 2004. “We investigated samples of dumplings that affected the Japanese, as well as dumplings produced within 11 days around the dates of Oct. 1 and Oct. 20. No traces of the pesticide were found,” he said. Investigators have queried 30 workers of Tianyang and the purchasing, manufacturing, storing and transporting processes of the factory without finding any problem with food quality, he added.

—The Daily Mail, China Daily news exchange item