Quality control specialist AsiaInspection said 48 per cent of the
“several thousand” inspections, audits and tests it conducted in China last
year failed to meet the requirements stipulated by some of its clients —
Western food trading companies and retailers.
“There are horror stories, obviously,”
Mathieu Labasse, AsiaInspection’s vice president told CNN
by phone.
“We find factories that just have no basic
idea about hygiene standards. People that handle the food, they have no gloves,
nothing.”
Labasse said there was a host of reasons
for the failings. In some cases, laboratory tests found abnormal levels of pesticides,
antibiotics, heavy metals, bacteria or viruses that could put consumers at
risk.
Other transgressions included
mislabeling packaging, abnormal coloring and odors, bruising and, in the case
of seafood, adding water to make the fish appear to weigh more than it does.
