Going the whole hog on public safety

Shanghai's market watchdog has ordered supermarkets and shops to carry out inspections after the suspected contamination of dumplings at Sanquan Foods headquarters in Zhengzhou, central China's Henan Province.

So far, no contaminated products have been found in Shanghai, according to the Shanghai Market Supervision and Management Bureau.

Samples from three batches of the company's pork-filled dumplings tested positive for the nucleic acid associated with African swine fever.

The samples were collected in Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture of Hunan Province and Jiuquan in Gansu Province.

Carrefour China said yesterday it has removed the products from its shelves and is waiting for notification from relevant authorities.

Lianhua Supermarket said it has not detected any contaminated products and is closely following the investigation.

Auchan Supermarket said it had taken all pork-filled dumplings from Sanquan Foods off its shelves as precaution.

E-commerce platforms including Taobao, Suning and Tmall have removed the products.

Sanquan Foods said it had sealed all affected batches from sales channels.

The food manufacturer said it has a complete food production and tracing system and will ask pork suppliers to enhance testing and checks.

It will cooperate with government authorities.

A joint investigation team established by authorities in Henan has arrived in Hunan and Gansu.

Ma Zhiying, technical director of the Shanghai Food Research Institute, said swine fever does not affect humans.