Beijing bans turbot sales after carcinogens found

BEIJING, Nov 21 (Reuters) Beijing has banned the sale of turbot after the city's food safety watchdog detected high levels of cancer-causing agents in fish at several of the capital's fish markets, Chinese media reported on Tuesday.

Other cities, including coastal Tianjin, industrial Liaoning and northwestern Xi'an have also started inspections after officials in Shanghai discovered contaminated turbot on Friday, the state-run China Daily said.

Food safety has become a priority issue for China after a series of scandals over tainted or counterfeit products.

The Beijing News report did not say how the fish may have been exposed to carcinogens or where the fish may have come from, but it said most of the turbot sold at Beijing fish markets is shipped from the coastal Bohai Bay region.

Last week, Chinese media reported that China had killed more than 5,000 ducks that farmers fed with a cancer-causing dye to make the eggs look redder and fresher. The eggs were also banned from sale.

In August, nearly 40 people in Beijing contracted meningitis after they ate raw or partially cooked snails at a chain of Sichuan restaurants.

In 2004, a major health scandal erupted when China revealed that at least 13 babies had died from malnutrition in the country's impoverished eastern province of Anhui after being fed fake baby milk.

REUTERS SB VV1006