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BEIJING : The company at the centre of China's latest food exports alarm said Wednesday it was investigating how pesticides were detected in frozen beans sold in Japan, but it believed it was not at fault.
Japanese authorities ordered retailers to pull the beans produced by Chinese firm Yantai Beihai Foodstuff off the nation's shelves after a woman ate some that had 34,500 times the legal limit of pesticide and promptly fell ill.
An official with Yantai, based in eastern China's Shandong province, confirmed Chinese authorities were investigating the company but said the firm believed it was not responsible.
"From all the information gathered, we currently suspect this is not a case of pesticides residue (originating from Yantai)," said Jiang Pengfei, from Yantai's business department.
He said it appeared so far that the problem in Japan was an isolated case and that the extreme level of pesticides detected indicated it was not a production issue.
"If it was a case of pesticide residue on a large scale (through all Yanta's beans), the level of residue wouldn't be so high."
Jiang said Yantai was nevertheless investigating the issue and was co-operating with local government officials who were also carrying out a probe.
Spokespeople for China's health ministry and food quality watchdog were not immediately available for comment.
China has urgently ordered all dairy products more than a month old to be pulled from shop shelves nationwide in its latest step to end a scandal over contaminated milk, state press reported Wednesday.
All dairy products made before September 14 will have to be tested for the industrial chemical melamine that has been responsible for killing four babies and leaving more than 53,000 others sick, Xinhua news agency said.
- AFP/vm
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