Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said in Beijing on Saturday that the tainted dumplings case last year is a criminal case and still under investigation by the Chinese government.

Yang made the remarks at an press conference on the sidelines of China's annual session of the National People's Congress, or the top legislative body.

"I wonder if there are cases in Japan too that remain unsolved after a long time of investigation. I believe the Japanese police will not give up but will pursue their investigation until these cases are resolved. That is what we are determined to do on this specific case," said Yang when answering the question why the issue remains unresolved after a year.

At the end of January last year at least 10 people in Japan had reported stomach aches, vomiting or diarrhoea after eating frozen dumplings made in China.

After a thorough investigation, China said in last February that this dumpling poisoning is an individual, deliberate incident, not a case of food safety resulting from pesticide residue.

However, the issue affected the reputation of Chinese food in Japan and caused a slump of China's food export to its neighbor.

Yang said that the Chinese government took food quality and safety very seriously, and called on Japan to continue cooperating with China in the investigation.

"We believe it is important for our two countries to establish a long-term cooperation mechanism on food safety," Yang said.

(Xinhua News Agency March 7, 2009)