Source:
International Herald TribuneChina detains head of gluten export companyBy David Barboza
Published: 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.
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http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/05/03/business/food.php