China finds American vitamin nourishment "substandard"

BEIJING: The trade war between China and the US over the quality of their products continued to simmer with Beijing today claiming that two brands of vitamin pills and children's oil made in America were found substandard.

Officials in the eastern Zhejiang province's industry and commerce bureau said that vitamin and mineral pills under the brand of K Max had the contents of manganese, vitamine A, vitamin D and zinc below its own specifications.

The other product under scrutiny was Alaska New Life children's fish oil, Xinhua news agency reported from Hangzhou, the provincial capital.

The vitamin and mineral pills and fish oil have been sold at 150 yuan (USD19.7) and 98 yuan (USD12.9) per bottle respectively in Zhejiang.

An unidentified official with the provincial industry and commerce bureau said that a thorough inspection would be carried out for imported food products.

He also warned people to be cautious of taking foreign nourishment and avoid blind faith in expensive products, the report said.

China and the United States have seized this year each others' products this year that were deemed unsafe amid an ongoing trade row exemplified by a major recall of Chinese toys by US company Mattel recently.

On Thursday, China's quarantine administration said it has detected harmful pine wood nematodes in 13 batches of wooden packages of US-imported goods.

A day earlier, the administration said it found a recent cargo of 21.6 tonnes of frozen potato slices imported from the United States was not up to quality standard concerning carbonyl and acidity levels