Feb 4, 2008, 9:48 GMT
Tokyo - The Japanese government decided on Monday to send a four-member team to China to investigate food-poisoning in frozen dumplings.
Chinese-made dumplings have caused a food-poisoning scare in Japan as health authorities and other organizations reported about 800 people complaining about sickness after eating the dumplings.
The team of Japanese officials would inspect factories where the products were made and meet with Chinese officials.
Meanwhile, Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said that the government may impose quarantine on imported foods to prevent further spread of food-poisoning, Kyodo News Agency said.
The Japanese government has not found how the products were contaminated by an organophosphate pesticide, called methamidophos, after they arrived in Japan by way of Tianjin port.
According to Chinese reports, no traces of the poison had been found in the factory that makes the dumplings.
Police found a hole in a dumpling package from which one family had eaten before falling ill, media reports said, noting suspicions that it might have been injected with a needle to infect its contents.
Japanese officials met with their Chinese counterparts, who arrived in Tokyo Sunday, and they agreed to press for a joint investigation.
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