Japan to check China factory over poison dumplings

TOKYO, Feb 4 (Reuters) - Japanese officials will travel to China to try to find out how dumplings made at a factory there were contaminated with pesticide, sickening 10 Japanese and sparking a nationwide food scare.

A further six packets have been found with pesticide on the outside of the wrappers, as a Chinese official warned the latest scare about the safety of Chinese products could harm ties.

Investigators have yet to pinpoint the mysterious source of contamination, the latest scare about the safety of Chinese products after incidents ranging from dog food to toothpaste.

"Gradually, various facts are coming out but we still don't know the cause," Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura told a news conference, adding that Japanese officials would go to China soon.

Chinese officials are already in Japan to investigate the contamination case, which became public when a food trading subsidiary of Japan Tobacco Inc last week recalled products from the factory where the dumplings are made.

Other firms followed suit, while restaurants and schools pulled products from their menus, prompting widespread media coverage and health queries from about 2,000 consumers.

Chinese food quality officials said on Saturday that tests on 30 samples of frozen dumplings, ingredients and packaging taken at the factory concerned had found no pesticide, which Japanese experts have said was used widely in China but not in Japan.

A Chinese government researcher said on Sunday that Japan had been too hasty to blame China and that the criticism could harm trade relations between the two giant neighbours.

"Since the real cause is still under investigation, I don't think it wise to blame the Chinese side for it," Xinhua news agency quoted Tang Chunfeng, an expert on Japanese affairs in the Research Institute of China's Ministry of Commerce, as saying.