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(AP) Turning the tables on the United States amid growing worries over
dangerous Chinese products, Beijing said Friday some health
supplements, raisins and pistachios imported from the U.S. failed to
meet China's safety standards and have been returned or destroyed.

In Washington, a top U.S. food safety official said the Food and Drug
Administration was seeking more information from its Chinese
counterparts, including whether they are "bona fide, science-based
findings" or in retaliation for U.S. actions.

U.S. inspectors recently have banned or turned away a growing number
of Chinese exports, including monkfish containing life-threatening
levels of puffer fish toxins, drug-laced frozen eel and juice made
with unsafe color additives. The FDA has also stopped all imports of
Chinese toothpaste to test for a potentially deadly chemical
reportedly found in tubes sold in Australia, the Dominican Republic
and Panama.

Friday's announcement said Chinese inspectors in the ports of Ningbo
and Shenzen found bacteria and sulfur dioxide in products shipped by
three American companies.

"The products failed to meet the sanitary standards of China," the
General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and
Quarantine said in a notice posted on its Web site.

No details were given on when or how the inspections were conducted
and telephones at the administration's office were not answered
Friday.

The companies were identified as K-Max Health Products Co., CMO
Distribution Center of America, Inc., and Supervalu International
Division.

On Saturday, state television showed inspectors in the southern
province of Guangdong rejecting a two-ton shipment of pistachios
because they contained what the report called "milky white ants,"
which looked similar to termites.

China Central Television said the ants could "cause a serious threat
to trees and to ecological environments." Part of the batch will be
destroyed and the rest will be returned, the report said without
giving any other details.

Footage showed safety certificates from the U.S. issued to Cal-Pure
Pistachios Inc., based in Bakersfield, Calif.

Telephone calls to Guangdong quarantine officials rang unanswered on
Saturday.

The state quality agency said K-Max and CMO exported health capsules,
including bee pollen and bacteria-fighting supplements. Supervalu
exported Sun-Maid Golden Raisins, it said. The shipments from K-Max
and Supervalu have been destroyed and CMO's capsules were returned,
the notice said.

The FDA's assistant commissioner for food protection, Dr. David
Acheson, said U.S. officials were seeking more information.

"Whatever the motives are for this, if it's real, we want to know
about it," Acheson said.

"Is it tit-for-tat? We don't know and probably won't ever know. If
they found a legitimate problem with a product exported from the
United States, we would want to know about it so we can look into it
and fix it."

Depending on what the FDA learns, it could follow up with inspections
of the companies and its own sampling and testing, Acheson said.
Previously, the agency hasn't known of any problems with the
companies' products flagged by the Chinese, he added.

Supervalu spokeswoman Rebekah Fawcett said its international division
"works closely with our vendors and our manufacturers to ensure that
the products we import and export adhere to quality standards and
safety specifications." Supervalu International is part of Supervalu
Inc., headquartered in Eden Prairie, Minn.

Neil Langerman, an officer of the division of chemical health and
safety of the American Chemical Society, questioned whether China's
seizure was in retaliation for recent U.S. actions against Chinese
products.

"There's more to this story than meets the eye. This is political,"
said Langerman, an officer of the division of chemical health and
safety of the American Chemical Society. "I'd see what China is doing
as retaliation to what the U.S. has done." The Chinese announcement
did not specify which contaminants were found in which products,
saying only that they were found in amounts above acceptable levels,
without providing details.

"Local quality officials should step up the inspection and quarantine
on imported food products from the U.S.," the Chinese notice said.
"Chinese importers should also clarify food safety demands in
contracts when importing U.S. food products, so as to lower the trade
risk."

Langerman said only a very small percentage of U.S. food shipments
have bacterial problems.

"Without seeing data, the claims, while they may in fact be valid,
don't have merit," he said. "I as a scientist say, show me your data,
not only your data, but how you sampled it. Did you use sterile
collection techniques?"

Langerman said sulfur dioxide can be present in raisins, but said
companies would not use it at high levels because it adds an eggy
odor. "It's also easy to get rid of because it's a gas, so you let it
dissipate," he said.

Marion Nestle, a nutrition professor at New York University, said she
didn't know why sulfur dioxide would pose a problem, since it's often
used to preserve raisins and other dried fruit. She said raisins would
be an unlikely host to bacteria because they are dry.

"This looks like retaliation," she said, noting that the Chinese have
complained that American authorities are holding their exports to food-
safety standards that were never detailed.

As for the herbal supplements, Nestle said the notice was too vague to
know what might be in them, though she noted the Chinese are
significant exporters of herbal supplements.

Friday's announcement was the second mention in recent days of China
rejecting foreign food imports. Late last month, France's Groupe
Danone SA said China seized five containers of Evian water in February
because of concern over high bacteria levels.

Those came after concerns spiked over the safety of Chinese food
exports following the deaths of cats and dogs in the United States and
Canada blamed on tainted pet food ingredients from China.

K-Max president Liei Ye did not immediately respond to a message left
with the company Friday seeking comment. K-Max is a subsidiary of Kang
Long Group Corp., whose Web site said the company began by selling
Wisconsin-grown ginseng to U.S. health food stores under its K-Max
brand, before expanding into China, Russia, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong,
Taiwan and other markets. Kang Long has four mainland China offices
and a Hong Kong branch in addition to its Pomona, Calif.,
headquarters, according to the site.