I would have posted the link but the Wall Street Journal, from which this comes, is behind a paywall so here it is. Considering the current worldwide furore over contaminate Chinese food products, this announcement is amazingly timed. Nobody’s perfect of course but the two parties involved-are both well known for their obsessive quality control. In both cases a great deal of cash rides on maintaining their reputations. If it’s true it is a timely irony. If not….
C
hina Turns Away
Shipments of Evian,
Australian Seafood
By NICHOLAS ZAMISKA
May 31, 2007; Page A4HONG KONG — China refused a shipment of Evian bottled water for what it said were unsafe bacterial levels and of Australian seafood that it said was tainted with heavy metals, even as the country struggles to control a crisis of confidence in the safety of its own food supply.
The moves come after tainted wheat flour from China was linked to the deaths of pet dogs and cats in the U.S., prompting a huge recall of pet food. In late March, the Food and Drug Administration said it had identified a small Chinese manufacturer as the source of wheat flour contaminated with melamine, a chemical used in plastics and fire retardants, that turned up in the pet food.
China’s actions also highlight its spotty enforcement, which beyond safety standards may be behind some of the country’s problems with food safety. The FDA, despite its own strict standards, also has had trouble with enforcement, given the massive amount of food imports with which it must deal.
Five shipping containers of bottled Evian water, made by Groupe Danone, of Paris, have been held at the Chinese border because of bacterial levels, said a spokeswoman for Danone, which sells Evian around the world. China’s import watchdog, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, issued a report dated May 17 indicating that Evian water had failed to pass inspection, exceeding bacteria limits.
The World Health Organization has recommendations on safe drinking water aimed at giving guidance to individual governments about “a tolerable level of acceptable risk.” They include identifying certain types of potentially dangerous bacteria, such as E. coli, which may indicate presence of other types of pathogens, says Bruce Gordon, technical officer with WHO in Geneva.
Separately, Chinese state television reported the government refused 30 tons of frozen seafood shipped from Australia to a port in the southern province of Guangdong because it was tainted with lead and cadmium.
–Geraldine Amiel in Paris and Jane Lanhee Lee and Denis McMahon in