China says quality of farm products improving

BEIJING, June 19 (Reuters) Chinese farm products are getting safer, the government said today, citing tests of fruit, vegetables, meat and fish in major cities that showed more than 95 percent of products were up to standard.

The Ministry of Agriculture, eager to reassure consumers following a series of safety scandals, said on its Web site (www.agri.gov.cn) all meat and poultry products tested in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenyang, Tianjin and Kunming were up to scratch.

''The proportion of vegetables tested which were up to standard when it came to farm chemical residues in 37 cities was the highest in recent years,'' it said in a statement.

''The general quality of agricultural products in our country keeps getting higher,'' it added.

But there were still a few problems. Malachite green, a cancer-causing chemical used by fish farmers to kill parasites, was found in some samples, as were nitrofurans, an antibiotic also linked to cancer, the ministry said.

The ministry this year will strengthen quality and safety controls over farm products and push for standardisation in the farm sector, it added.

Fresh scandals involving substandard food and medicines are reported by Chinese media almost every day, and the issue has burst into the international spotlight since tainted additives exported from China contaminated pet food in North America.

Public fears grew in China in 2004 when at least 13 babies died of malnutrition in Anhui after they were fed fake milk powder with no nutritional value.

REUTERS RJ RK1140