More than 23 tons of frozen pork shipped from Ireland to Nanjing was found to contain toxic dioxin and ordered to be shipped back on Friday, a local inspection and quarantine authority said Sunday.

The 937 cases of pork, imported by a food company in Suzhou City, was found to contain the chemical dioxin, according to the Suzhou Municipal Entry-exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau. Dioxin is carcinogen specifically linked to breast cancer.

Inspectors sealed the pork and ordered the company to send it back.

The pork was imported through the Shanghai Customs on Oct. 30.

China's entry-exit and quarantine inspectors detained about 312 tons of Irish pork products across the country, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) said in December.

AQSIQ suspended the import of Irish pork products and animal feed on Dec. 8 after the products were suspected to be tainted with dioxin.

Local entry-exit and quarantine inspectors were required to recall and return pork products already in China if they were made in Ireland after Sept. 1.

(Xinhua News Agency January 25, 2009)