Spot checks carried out in 23 cities discovered higher-than-acceptable levels of pesticide residue in 86 of 181 vegetables sampled, including cucumbers and celery.

And Xiang Yuzhang, an official with the State Administration for Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ), revealed residual nitrate in seven kinds of meat products exceeded limits.

Tests were carried out on 3,421 products that included not only food but also common consumer goods.

Of these products, the quality of 2,533 goods - or 74 percent of the total - met standards.

The tests also revealed that more products produced by large-scale enterprises met set standards than those made by small and medium-sized companies, Xiang said.

This disparity between large and small enterprises widened to 32 percentage points in the third quarter from 21.6 percentage points in the second quarter.

When talking about the quality of food and household goods, he said 35.1 percent of the 1,179 samples failed to meet set standards.

The samples fell into 15 categories - such as meat product, vegetables, condiment, pickles and trainers - which account for 20 percent of the total.

Xiang said problems existed where the indices of microbe and food additives surpassed the State-set standards, threatening people's health.

Wang Qinping, vice-minister of the AQSIQ, vowed to take concrete measures to deal with sub-quality products and their producers. He said quality and quarantine departments at all levels should strengthen supervision and urge the reform of those companies that had made shoddy products.

To deal with the health threats posed by such food and everyday articles, Wang said production and sale should be stopped immediately and due punishment handed out to the producers.

(China Daily October 30, 2001)