China has found no evidence that frozen beans pulled from shelves in Japan were tainted with pesticide, Chinese officials said on Thursday.

One Japanese woman, vomiting and with a numb mouth, was hospitalized after eating green beans imported by Nichirei Foods and sold in Ito-Yokado supermarkets.

Tests showed the beans she bought contained 34,000 times the permitted level of dichlorvos, a toxic insecticide, Japan's Health Ministry said.

Six other people had complained of ill health after eating beans from the same batch, Japan's Kyodo news agency said.

But sample tests carried out on Wednesday in China found no sign of pesticide residue, said Mu Xin, vice mayor of Laiyang City in Shandong Province, where the frozen-bean producer Yantai Beihai Foodstuff is based.

No abnormal signs were found in the beans' planting and processing procedures, Mu said yesterday.

"The company and its production base in Heilongjiang Province have never used this kind of pesticide," said Lan Mingde, general manager of Yantai Beihai Foodstuff, a joint venture with Japanese and Taiwanese investors.

The company, mainly processing frozen vegetables, stopped exports of the products to Japan but general production was continuing.

Japanese police suspected the contamination was deliberate as the beans were washed and boiled before being frozen, which would have diluted the pesticide if it had been present, Japanese broadcaster NHK said.

Officials from China's top quality watchdog and the Shandong provincial entry-exit inspection and quarantine bureau are investigating.

(Shanghai Daily October 17, 2008)