Posted: Jun 14, 2012 10:50 AM PDT Updated: Jun 14, 2012 10:50 AM PDT
Source: The Wall Street Journal
BEIJING -- Walmart Stores faced new accusations of food-safety violations in China, as the retailer attempted to recover from a pork-labeling scandal that jolted its China operations last year.
Beijing's Food Safety Administration said Thursday that it accused Walmart of violating food-safety standards in March by selling sesame oil exceeding standard amounts of benzopyrene and squid containing hazardous levels of cadmium. The agency's website said the sesame oil and squid were produced by domestic companies.
Both chemicals are hazardous to human consumption and can cause cancer, according to the US Centers for Disease Control.
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Foreign companies generally are watched more closely than domestic companies in China, said Ben Cavender, a senior analyst at China Market Research Group in Shanghai.
Walmart also faces problems in China's southwestern city of Dazhou, where the city's animal-husbandry department said this week that regulators in January found pork ribs sourced from diseased pigs at a local Walmart.
The retailer has been in close contact with the Dazhou government since the incident, a Walmart spokesman said Thursday. "The product was immediately removed from our shelves in that store, and we have discontinued supply of that product," the company said. ...
