Dumplings, rabies shots latest China health scare

By Ben Blanchard

BEIJING (Reuters) - Dumplings stuffed with cardboard and bogus rabies vaccines are the focus of the latest health scares in China, where the government has banned an industrial solvent used in toothpaste after a spate of global recalls.

China has stepped up its battle against substandard and fake food and drugs, new examples of which are reported on an almost daily basis around the world, and this week executed a former drug and food safety chief for corruption.

The Beijing Industry and Commerce Bureau had uncovered an unlicensed snack vendor selling steamed dumplings with traditional pork filling padded out with cardboard husks, the Beijing News said on Thursday, citing an investigative report by state-owned China Central Television.

The bureau had announced a city-wide crackdown of small snack vendors and warned people to eat in "legal" establishments.

Beijing was also investigating bogus rabies vaccines, the Beijing Times said, after a woman bitten by a neighbor's dog injected vaccine she bought from a local hospital.

Authorities found the hospital had been selling phials of vaccine taken off shelves two years earlier for quality problems, the paper said.

Tales of shoddy or unsafe goods have grabbed international attention and called into doubt the made-in-China label but China has insisted the problems are limited to a few wayward manufacturers and has accused foreign media of hype.

Wei Chuanzhong, deputy head of the quality supervision watchdog, added his voice to the accusations in a meeting with the American Chamber of Commerce in China, according to a statement posted on the administration's Web site (www.aqsiq.gov.cn).