Chinese food suppliers meet standard

Chinese-made dumplings were at the center of a food scare in Japan last month. And as a result, some Japanese dealers have decided to stop selling food that are processed or produced in China. But the Japanese Consumer's Co-operative Union says a series of spot checks have revealed that the majority of Chinese food suppliers more than meets acceptable standards.

The Japanese Consumer's Co-operative Union or JCCU is the largest food retail organization in Japan. Over the past two weeks, the JCCU has been carrying out a series of spot checks on dozens of Chinese food suppliers in 11 provinces and cities. They include Beijing, Zhejiang, Shandong and Guangdong.

Following the examination, the JCCU has given the nod to 35 out of 37 Chinese food suppliers to continue their food shipment to Japan. The remaining two factories can also resume their supply after solving the problems that were not the key issues.

JCCU owns 240 million members in Japan, and it's annual distribution makes up 20 to 30 percent of all the food shipment from China.

The JCCU has started the examination program in China since Feb. 14, and will cover 60 plants. The spot checks will last three months.

China says the poisoning incident of Chinese-made dumplings exported to Japan is an individual contrived case. And sample tests from the rest of the batch showed that the dumplings, as well as raw materials used in production, were safe. The government says it has given its full cooperation so far to clear up the issue. It adds that it hopes the incident will not hurt China-Japan relations.