Thailand rejects contaminated Chinese food

BANGKOK, Aug 17 (Reuters) About 10 per cent of 11,500 Chinese food products entering Thailand's northern border have been rejected or destroyed because they were contaminated with hazardous toxins, a Health Ministry official said today.

The move came at a time of heightened concern around the world about the safety of Chinese exports, and on the day a Beijing government report showed that nearly 15 per cent of Chinese food products failed a recent quality check.

The products rejected at the Thai border included dried shark fins, seasoned seaweed and artificial sweeteners, said Paichit Warachit, head of the ministry's Food and Drugs Administration.

''We have turned back or destroyed the Chinese products and will open a few more test labs in Chiang Rai to check them,'' he said, referring to a northern city.

''To avoid hurting bilateral trade, they still have not been banned or blacklisted from entry.'' Some of the affected Chinese fruits, shipped to Chiang Rai along the Mekong River from southern China, were found to contain hazardous residues of chemicals and pesticides, he said.

Paichit estimated that 700-800 million baht (20-23 million dollar) of such Chinese products entered the Thai province per month.

Cheap Chinese fruits and food products have flooded Thailand since late 2003, when a limited Thai-Chinese free trade agreement took effect.

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