Baby food sold in China 'safe'
By Steffie Lu |
April 13, 2011, Wednesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
BABY food sold in China is safe, officials said yesterday, despite findings in Sweden that rice porridge produced by some major manufacturers exposed babies to high levels of arsenic.
Britain's Daily Telegraph said that the baby food tested came from manufacturers including Organix, Hipp, Nestle and Holle. The newspaper cited scientists as saying that feeding infants twice a day with shop-bought baby foods could increase their exposure to arsenic, which can cause cancer, by up to fifty times compared to breast feeding alone.
The results led to calls for urgent new safety rules to control the presence of poisons in foods for young children.
Britain's Food Standards Agency and the European Commission are conducting an urgent review to establish new limits for the long term exposure of these contaminants in food, the newspaper said.
Arsenic and the other heavy metals are often found in food as they are absorbed from the soil by plants.
Nestle's rice porridge is a good seller in China. But the company said in a statement that the food highlighted in the report was not sold on the Chinese mainland. Nestle baby foods produced and sold in China were in full compliance with China's regulations and standards, it said.
The statement also said the products mentioned in the article were safe for infants and within all Nordic and European standards.
Health experts in China said arsenic's carcinogenic probability was rather low and people had no need to worry as long as the arsenic content in food was within the country's standard. Baby food that passed the Chinese authorities' inspections was safe, they said.
Shanghai quality authorities said they were closely watching the affair, but officials wouldn't be taking any action on baby food sold in the city.
However, they said that if the country's standards were modified, they would inspect the market strictly in accordance with the new standard.
At present, China's Ministry of Health is adjusting the limits on food pollutants, but the draft, which is published on the ministry's official website, doesn't include arsenic content in rice and baby food, as experts believe the present standard is safe.
Britain's Daily Telegraph said that the baby food tested came from manufacturers including Organix, Hipp, Nestle and Holle. The newspaper cited scientists as saying that feeding infants twice a day with shop-bought baby foods could increase their exposure to arsenic, which can cause cancer, by up to fifty times compared to breast feeding alone.
The results led to calls for urgent new safety rules to control the presence of poisons in foods for young children.
Britain's Food Standards Agency and the European Commission are conducting an urgent review to establish new limits for the long term exposure of these contaminants in food, the newspaper said.
Arsenic and the other heavy metals are often found in food as they are absorbed from the soil by plants.
Nestle's rice porridge is a good seller in China. But the company said in a statement that the food highlighted in the report was not sold on the Chinese mainland. Nestle baby foods produced and sold in China were in full compliance with China's regulations and standards, it said.
The statement also said the products mentioned in the article were safe for infants and within all Nordic and European standards.
Health experts in China said arsenic's carcinogenic probability was rather low and people had no need to worry as long as the arsenic content in food was within the country's standard. Baby food that passed the Chinese authorities' inspections was safe, they said.
Shanghai quality authorities said they were closely watching the affair, but officials wouldn't be taking any action on baby food sold in the city.
However, they said that if the country's standards were modified, they would inspect the market strictly in accordance with the new standard.
At present, China's Ministry of Health is adjusting the limits on food pollutants, but the draft, which is published on the ministry's official website, doesn't include arsenic content in rice and baby food, as experts believe the present standard is safe.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
