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China Detains Head of Gluten Export Company
By David Barboza
Thursday, May 3, 2007
SHANGHAI: The general manager of one of the companies accused of selling contaminated wheat gluten to U.S. pet-food suppliers
has been detained by the Chinese authorities, according to police officials here and a person who was briefed on the investigation.
The general manager, Mao Lijun, who heads Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development, is being held in Jiangsu Province,
about 500 kilometers, or 310 miles, northwest of Shanghai, although a police spokesman in Pei County declined to say on what
charges.
In an interview by telephone a few weeks ago, Mao denied any knowledge of how melamine, an industrial chemical, had tainted
pet-food supplies sold under his company label this year. He also insisted that his company had never exported any wheat gluten and
that his products were only sold in the domestic market.
But regulators in the United States named Xuzhou Anying and another company, Binzhou Futian Biology Technology in Shandong
Province, as the only sources of the tainted ingredients that led to one of the biggest pet-food recalls in U.S. history.
Scientists are still trying to explain how melamine, a chemical used to make plastics, fertilizer and surface coatings but not considered
very toxic, caused so many deaths.
The contamination, which affected some of the leading American pet-food brands, has been implicated in nearly 4,000 reported cat
and dog deaths, the Food and Drug Administration said.
The detention of Mao may indicate that the Chinese government is stepping up its own investigation into the scandal while also trying
to show a willingness to cooperate with investigators from the U.S. food and drug agency who arrived in China on Monday.
Concerns about the quality and safety of China's agriculture exports have already led to a ban on all wheat gluten entering the United
States from China and a warning for importers to sample or test all food and feed additives coming from this country.
Last month, South Africa also announced a pet-food recall after at least 30 dogs died from eating food contaminated with
melamine-tainted ingredients imported from China.
Beijing initially reacted angrily to suggestions that Chinese food exports could have been the cause of death in so many American
pets. At one point, China's government insisted that the country had not exported any wheat gluten to the United States this year.
People briefed on the U.S. investigation also complained that the Chinese government was reacting slowly to efforts by American
regulators to get information from China as well as visas to visit the country. But last week, with the pet-food scandal widening and
touching off global concerns, the Chinese government dropped the denials, while maintaining its insistence that it was unlikely
melamine could cause such harm in pets. China banned the use of melamine in vegetable proteins last Friday.
Beijing also appears to be actively cooperating with the American officials. It has approved visas for U.S. regulators to travel here
looking for the source of the contamination. Last week, the U.S. food and drug agency issued an import alert circular that said the
Chinese government had evidence that Xuzhou Anying was not the manufacturer of the tainted wheat gluten but that it might have had
as many as 25 wheat gluten suppliers.
ChemNutra, the Las Vegas company that bought the wheat gluten and resold it to pet-food makers in the United States, has said that
Xuzhou represented itself as the manufacturer.
Regulators also said Xuzhou had failed to disclose to China's export authorities that it was shipping food or feed products to the
United States, thereby avoiding having its goods checked by food inspectors. The Xuzhou shipments to ChemNutra were made
through another Chinese company, Suzhou Textiles Silk Light Industrial.
Despite its denials of involvement in the melamine contamination, Xuzhou appears to have sought to purchase large supplies of the
chemical even in the weeks after the pet-food recall.
The company had posted more than a dozen advertisements on the Internet seeking supplies of melamine scrap. Chinese feed
suppliers say the chemical is often mixed into animal feed to make it appear higher in protein under routine chemical tests, cheating
buyers into thinking they are getting higher grade feed. Melamine has no nutritional value.
On March 21, Xuzhou Anying apparently posted this message on the Internet trading site EC21: "We urgently need a lot of melamine
scrap." Calls made Thursday to Binzhou Futian, the other supplier under suspicion, went unanswered.
Despite the ban on melamine in vegetable protein, Chinese chemical companies continue to say they sell melamine scrap to animal
feed companies and even to food companies that make bakery items. "Our chemical products are mostly used for additives, not for
animal feed," said Li Xiuping, a manager at Henan Xinxiang Huaxing Chemical in Henan Province. "Melamine is mainly used in the
chemical industry, but it can also be used in making cakes."
By David Barboza
Thursday, May 3, 2007
SHANGHAI: The general manager of one of the companies accused of selling contaminated wheat gluten to U.S. pet-food suppliers
has been detained by the Chinese authorities, according to police officials here and a person who was briefed on the investigation.
The general manager, Mao Lijun, who heads Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development, is being held in Jiangsu Province,
about 500 kilometers, or 310 miles, northwest of Shanghai, although a police spokesman in Pei County declined to say on what
charges.
In an interview by telephone a few weeks ago, Mao denied any knowledge of how melamine, an industrial chemical, had tainted
pet-food supplies sold under his company label this year. He also insisted that his company had never exported any wheat gluten and
that his products were only sold in the domestic market.
But regulators in the United States named Xuzhou Anying and another company, Binzhou Futian Biology Technology in Shandong
Province, as the only sources of the tainted ingredients that led to one of the biggest pet-food recalls in U.S. history.
Scientists are still trying to explain how melamine, a chemical used to make plastics, fertilizer and surface coatings but not considered
very toxic, caused so many deaths.
The contamination, which affected some of the leading American pet-food brands, has been implicated in nearly 4,000 reported cat
and dog deaths, the Food and Drug Administration said.
The detention of Mao may indicate that the Chinese government is stepping up its own investigation into the scandal while also trying
to show a willingness to cooperate with investigators from the U.S. food and drug agency who arrived in China on Monday.
Concerns about the quality and safety of China's agriculture exports have already led to a ban on all wheat gluten entering the United
States from China and a warning for importers to sample or test all food and feed additives coming from this country.
Last month, South Africa also announced a pet-food recall after at least 30 dogs died from eating food contaminated with
melamine-tainted ingredients imported from China.
Beijing initially reacted angrily to suggestions that Chinese food exports could have been the cause of death in so many American
pets. At one point, China's government insisted that the country had not exported any wheat gluten to the United States this year.
People briefed on the U.S. investigation also complained that the Chinese government was reacting slowly to efforts by American
regulators to get information from China as well as visas to visit the country. But last week, with the pet-food scandal widening and
touching off global concerns, the Chinese government dropped the denials, while maintaining its insistence that it was unlikely
melamine could cause such harm in pets. China banned the use of melamine in vegetable proteins last Friday.
Beijing also appears to be actively cooperating with the American officials. It has approved visas for U.S. regulators to travel here
looking for the source of the contamination. Last week, the U.S. food and drug agency issued an import alert circular that said the
Chinese government had evidence that Xuzhou Anying was not the manufacturer of the tainted wheat gluten but that it might have had
as many as 25 wheat gluten suppliers.
ChemNutra, the Las Vegas company that bought the wheat gluten and resold it to pet-food makers in the United States, has said that
Xuzhou represented itself as the manufacturer.
Regulators also said Xuzhou had failed to disclose to China's export authorities that it was shipping food or feed products to the
United States, thereby avoiding having its goods checked by food inspectors. The Xuzhou shipments to ChemNutra were made
through another Chinese company, Suzhou Textiles Silk Light Industrial.
Despite its denials of involvement in the melamine contamination, Xuzhou appears to have sought to purchase large supplies of the
chemical even in the weeks after the pet-food recall.
The company had posted more than a dozen advertisements on the Internet seeking supplies of melamine scrap. Chinese feed
suppliers say the chemical is often mixed into animal feed to make it appear higher in protein under routine chemical tests, cheating
buyers into thinking they are getting higher grade feed. Melamine has no nutritional value.
On March 21, Xuzhou Anying apparently posted this message on the Internet trading site EC21: "We urgently need a lot of melamine
scrap." Calls made Thursday to Binzhou Futian, the other supplier under suspicion, went unanswered.
Despite the ban on melamine in vegetable protein, Chinese chemical companies continue to say they sell melamine scrap to animal
feed companies and even to food companies that make bakery items. "Our chemical products are mostly used for additives, not for
animal feed," said Li Xiuping, a manager at Henan Xinxiang Huaxing Chemical in Henan Province. "Melamine is mainly used in the
chemical industry, but it can also be used in making cakes."
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