Unfit for Chinese but Good for the Rest of Us?

One-fifth of products made in China for domestic consumption failed quality and safety standards, the Chinese government said, while a state newspaper stressed Wednesday the need to raise quality guidelines to meet international levels.

China's dismal product safety record - both within and outside its borders - has increasingly come under the spotlight in both the local and foreign media as its goods make their way through global markets. Major buyers such as the United States, Japan, and the European Union have pushed Beijing to improve inspections.

In the first half of 2007, 19.1 per cent of products made for domestic consumption were found to be substandard, China's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said in a statement posted on its website late Tuesday.

Canned and preserved fruit and dried fish were the most problematic, commonly because of excessive microorganisms and additives, the agency said.

Though the survey covered many different products, it focused on food, common consumer goods, farm machinery and fertilizers.

More than 93 per cent of products made by large enterprises met standards, while only about 73 per cent of products made by small enterprises met standards, the agency said. It did not say how it defined the size of the companies.

In an editorial Wednesday, China Daily newspaper said food exported by China sometimes did not meet standards of importing countries because of a difference in quality guidelines.

"This is not because the food itself was of low quality but because the standards we use may be lower," the editorial said.

"It is becoming increasingly urgent to raise the food safety standards to international levels."

Fears that China's chronic food safety problems were going global surfaced earlier this year with the deaths of dogs and cats in North America blamed on pet food containing Chinese wheat gluten tainted with the chemical melamine.

U.S. authorities have also turned away or recalled toxic fish, juice containing unsafe colour additives and popular toy trains decorated with lead paint. Chinese-made toothpaste has been banned by numerous countries for containing diethylene glycol, a toxic ingredient often found in antifreeze.

Source: CBC.ca