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China Closes 180 Food Plants

Posted Jun 28, 07 3:51 AM CDT in

(Newser) – The Chinese government has shut down 180 food manufacturing plants for racking up a whopping 23,000 violations in the last six months, most of them for using chemicals and industrial materials as food fillers to cut costs. Almost all were small and unlicensed, making it unlikely their products, worth some $26 million, reached international markets.

The factories had been adding mineral oils, wax, formaldehyde and carcinogenic malachite green to everything from candy to pickles. The crackdown represented China's first acknowledgment of quality control challenges in the nation in the wave of several high-profile problems with Chinese products in the last several months.

Source Wall Street Journal

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Boxes of Tianqi Toothpaste are seen at a supermarket in Chengdu, in China's Sichuan province Tuesday, June 12 2007. China's Communist Party called Saturday, June 16, 2007, for timely tests and improved...   (Associated Press)
An officer from the Beijing Administration for Industry and Commerce (BAIC) office speaks to journalists near fake or non-standard products on display at a BAIC food safety monitoring center in Beijing...   (Associated Press)
A worker empties a bag of zongzi, a sticky rice dumpling, into a truck after they were confiscated from an illegal zongzi workshop in Beijing Wednesday June 13, 2007. Two tons of zongzi were confiscated...   (Associated Press)
A technician with the Beijing Administration for Industry and Commerce (BAIC) center for food safety monitoring uses high tech equipments to test food products in Beijing Tuesday, June 12, 2007. China...   (Associated Press)
Lab technicians with the Beijing Administration for Industry and Commerce (BAIC) center for food safety monitoring conduct tests on food products in Beijing Tuesday, June 12, 2007. China has some problems...   (Associated Press)
An officer from the Beijing Administration for Industry and Commerce (BAIC) office look at fake or non-standard products on display at a BAIC food safety monitoring center in Beijing Tuesday, June 12,...   (Associated Press)
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