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.
People can preregister to receive their NT$10,000 (US$325) cash distributed from the central government on Nov. 5 after President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday signed the Special Budget for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience, the Executive Yuan told a news conference last night. The special budget, passed by the Legislative Yuan on Friday last week with a cash handout budget of NT$236 billion, was officially submitted to the Executive Yuan and the Presidential Office yesterday afternoon. People can register through the official Web site at https://10000.gov.tw to have the funds deposited into their bank accounts, withdraw the funds at automated teller
PEACE AND STABILITY: Maintaining the cross-strait ‘status quo’ has long been the government’s position, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Taiwan is committed to maintaining the cross-strait “status quo” and seeks no escalation of tensions, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday, rebutting a Time magazine opinion piece that described President William Lai (賴清德) as a “reckless leader.” The article, titled “The US Must Beware of Taiwan’s Reckless Leader,” was written by Lyle Goldstein, director of the Asia Program at the Washington-based Defense Priorities think tank. Goldstein wrote that Taiwan is “the world’s most dangerous flashpoint” amid ongoing conflicts in the Middle East and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He said that the situation in the Taiwan Strait has become less stable
REASSURANCE: The US said Taiwan’s interests would not be harmed during the talk and that it remains steadfast in its support for the nation, the foreign minister said US President Donald Trump on Friday said he would bring up Taiwan with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) during a meeting on the sidelines of the APEC Summit in South Korea this week. “I will be talking about Taiwan [with Xi],” Trump told reporters before he departed for his trip to Asia, adding that he had “a lot of respect for Taiwan.” “We have a lot to talk about with President Xi, and he has a lot to talk about with us. I think we’ll have a good meeting,” Trump said. Taiwan has long been a contentious issue between the US and China.
FRESH LOOK: A committee would gather expert and public input on the themes and visual motifs that would appear on the notes, the central bank governor said The central bank has launched a comprehensive redesign of New Taiwan dollar banknotes to enhance anti-counterfeiting measures, improve accessibility and align the bills with global sustainability standards, Governor Yang Chin-long (楊金龍) told a meeting of the legislature’s Finance Committee yesterday. The overhaul would affect all five denominations — NT$100, NT$200, NT$500, NT$1,000 and NT$2,000 notes — but not coins, Yang said. It would be the first major update to the banknotes in 24 years, as the current series, introduced in 2001, has remained in circulation amid rapid advances in printing technology and security standards. “Updating the notes is essential to safeguard the integrity
RSS