A Chinese company accused of selling contaminated wheat gluten to US pet food suppliers avoided inspections partly because it did not correctly disclose its shipping contents to Chinese export authorities, according to US regulators.
The Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development Co, one of two Chinese companies at the center of the huge recall of pet food that has killed or sickened thousands of animals, shipped more than 635 tonnes of wheat gluten labeled as nonfood products this year through a third-party Chinese textile company.
By listing the goods as nonfood items, the firm's shipments were not subject to mandatory inspection by the Chinese government.
PHOTO: NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE
Though a possible violation of Beijing's export policies, such mislabeling is thought to be widespread in China.
The details of the case, some of them disclosed on Friday in a circular released by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), are just the latest clues that Chinese feed suppliers may have been intentionally disguising the contents of their goods.
Several FDA officials are now visiting China to seek more information about how and why an industrial chemical used in plastics and fertilizer got mixed into pet food ingredients.
PHOTO: NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE
US regulators admit that six weeks after one of the biggest pet food recalls in US history, they still do not know exactly who in China manufactured the contaminated pet food ingredients or where in China the contamination took place.
Though the agency has named two Chinese companies as the suppliers of the tainted vegetable protein sent to the US, regulators suspect the companies may not have been manufacturing the feed, but buying it from dozens of other feed manufacturers in China.
Those feed producers, regulators say they believe, may have intentionally mixed melamine into the feed to inflate artificially the level of protein in the bags to meet pet food requirements.
The two Chinese companies named by US regulators last month have said little publicly since the recall.
Both companies are based in eastern China, near one of the country's biggest wheat-growing regions and also one of the centers of melamine production.
Melamine is an industrial chemical that animal feed producers here say has been intentionally mixed into feed to trick farmers into thinking they are buying higher protein meal, even though the chemical has no nutritional value.
The Chinese government said last week that it was unlikely melamine could have harmed so many pets in the US.
But on Friday, China banned melamine from use in any vegetable protein for export or for use in the domestic food market.
The FDA says that it has received reports that more than 4,000 cats and dogs died as a result of eating pet food that may have been laced with melamine.
Scientists are now struggling to determine why melamine, a chemical that is not believed to be toxic, may have turned poisonous.
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
UPDATED FORECAST: The warning covered areas of Pingtung County and Hengchun Peninsula, while a sea warning covering the southern Taiwan Strait was amended The Central Weather Administration (CWA) at 5:30pm yesterday issued a land warning for Typhoon Usagi as the storm approached Taiwan from the south after passing over the Philippines. As of 5pm, Usagi was 420km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost tip, with an average radius of 150km, the CWA said. The land warning covered areas of Pingtung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春), and came with an amended sea warning, updating a warning issued yesterday morning to cover the southern part of the Taiwan Strait. No local governments had announced any class or office closures as of press time last night. The typhoon
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