China bans two food exporters amid pet food scare

BEIJING, July 20 (Reuters) China has cancelled the business licences of two firms that exported wheat protein tainted with toxic chemicals that wound up in pet food in the United States, a senior quality control official said today.

US consumers have been alarmed by a spate of pet deaths blamed on tainted wheat gluten and rice protein exported from China, as well as reports of toxins and disease in other Chinese exports.

The two companies -- Xuzhou Anying Biotechnology Development in Jiangsu province and Bingzhou Futian Biotechnology in Shandong province -- ''unlawfully added melamine in some of their protein products exported to the United States'', quality watchdog chief Li Changjiang told a news conference.

He was speaking a day after China warned the United States against ''groundless smear attacks'' against Chinese products and said it was working responsibly to address concerns over a spate of recent food safety scares.

The deaths of patients in Panama from mislabelled drug ingredients from China as well as a whole series of other cases including tainted toothpaste have raised fears about the safety of China's surging exports.

REUTERS AM VV0852