(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-02-28 20:27

BEIJING - China hopes the poisoning incident of Chinese dumplings exported to Japan would not have an impact on China-Japan relations, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said here on Thursday.

Liu said that the dumpling poisoning was an individual contrived case and he believed that both sides would properly handle the case. China had paid intense attention to this case and hoped that both sides could step up cooperation to clear up the issue at an early date, Liu said.

In January, Japanese media reported that 10 people fell ill after consuming frozen meat dumplings produced by Tianyang Food Plant based in north China's Hebei Province.

Japanese authorities found methamidophos in the vomit of those poisoned and in food packages at their houses.

But sample tests showed that the rest of the same batch of dumplings and other batches made at about the same time by the Chinese company were safe, as were the raw materials used in production.