Food safety regulators have given imports of Chinese food a "green light" after a broad range of tests, said the New Zealand Food Safety Authority (NZFSA) Thursday.
The New Zealand Food Safety Authority (NZFSA) said testing of imported vegetable protein - wheat gluten and soy and corn meal - found no harmful chemical residues at all.
A second survey of Chinese aquaculture products also found "no residue levels of concern," said NZFSA.
The official agency responsible for "protecting and promoting New Zealand public health and safety," also tested a range of New Zealand-grown and imported fruit and vegetables.
NZFSA assistant director Glen Neal told Xinhua that despite targeting areas "where we believed we were most likely to find residues higher than the regulatory limit, we found just one breach in imported food, and a small number in a wide range of tests of New Zealand foods."
"None of these represented any risks to health," said Neal.
The test of vegetable proteins followed concerns in the United States that melamine and cyanuric acid used by Chinese petfoods manufacturers to boost the perceived protein level of petfoods may have caused the deaths of American pets.
Neal said NZFSA has since mid-May tested 15 samples of petfoods, including products imported into New Zealand from China, and not found any traces of either melamine or cyanuric acid.
Also following public concerns, NZFSA looked at imports of Chinese farmed fish.
NZFSA tested 31 canned and frozen products including shrimp, eel, prawns, dace, carp, anchovy, roe, and fish balls and other processed product.
"We found six residues of a class of antimicrobials, known as triphenylmethane dyes, and nine residues (two detects in two samples, both of semicarbazide which can occur naturally) of nitrofuran metabolites. Nitrofurans are a class of antibiotics," said Neal.
"All of these results -- even the highest at 0.058 milligrams per kilogram (mg/kg) were well below any level that would pose a health risk," said Neal.
He said many of the results were very near to the limit of detection in fact.
"The results we found are similar to those other regulators around the world are finding, and show that the products being sold in New Zealand meet requirements and are safe to consume," said Neal.
Neal said NZFSA was planning another survey of seafood later in the year covering a broader range of residues, likely to include those which were showing up at the U.S. and Australian borders.
Source: Xinhua
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