Batches of soybean sauce made by a Japanese firm and imported to China have been found to contain excessive amounts of arsenic, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said on Tuesday.

The Tianjin quarantine bureau said the sauce, made by Morita Foods, contained five times more arsenic than Chinese standards allow, it said.

All of the contaminated products were destroyed before entering the market, it said.

Also, the same inspection officials discovered a batch of coffee from Japan that contained excessive amounts of copper, the release said. These products, too, have been destroyed.

This is the second time in less than a week that Chinese officials have detected toxic substances in Japanese soy sauce, the administration said.

Last week, quarantine officials in southern China discovered batches of soy sauce and mustard sauce that were tainted with toluene and acetic ester, chemicals that are used in paint.

(China Daily November 5, 2008)