China detains manager of tainted protein firm: report

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese police have detained the manager of a company U.S. officials say caused a spate of pet deaths by mixing chemicals into grain protein products, the International Herald Tribune reported on Friday.

Mao Lijun, head of Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development Company Ltd., is being held in Jiangsu province on unspecified charges, the report said, citing police officials and a person who was briefed on the investigation.

An official from the foreign trade department of the company told Reuters on Friday she was on holiday and had no information on Mao's whereabouts. Other company phones were left unanswered.

Shanghai and county police from the site of Mao's headquarters were also not available for comment.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) officials have said melamine, a chemical used in plastics and fertilizer, was found in wheat gluten and rice protein imported from China for use in some pet foods.

Last month Mao told Reuters that his firm had never exported wheat gluten to the United States. But it was named by the FDA, together with Binzhou Futian Biology Technology Co. Ltd., as a source of tainted goods.

China denied last week that grain protein products from its firms were behind the pet deaths in the United States and Latin America, but it promised to tighten controls and ban a suspect chemical from the food ingredients.