The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine has asked related government departments in New Zealand to offer more details about the tainted dairy products, Xinhua News Agency reported Saturday.
Later on Saturday, the MPI published a statement on its website, which was also translated into Chinese, offering reassurance about the safety of New Zealand dairy products.
"These small DCD residues pose no food safety risk. DCD itself is not poisonous," MPI Director-General Wayne McNee said in the statement, noting that there has been no use of DCD in New Zealand pastures since September 2012.
The Ministry said DCD has been used by less than 5 percent of the country's dairy farmers who applied it only twice a year, and that it is used in pastures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the leaching of nitrogen into waterways.
Fonterra China said on its Sina Weibo Sunday that it welcomed MPI's statement and reiterated that its products are harmless.
"Consumers need not be concerned. The DCD case is not harmful, unlike the melamine- dairy scandal in 2008, because the content is at a very low level," Wang said.
"Also, human beings can tolerate a certain amount of DCD," Wang noted.
Foreign milk powder brands that use New Zealand milk including Wyeth and Abbott are still on sale in major cities including Beijing.
China's weekly story (2013.01.21-01.27)
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