No danger for humans and CFIA is investigating the claim.Ottawa—A pork shipment from a Quebec processor has been temporarily suspended by Chinese officials who said it tested positive for the presence of ractopamine even though most Canadian producers don't use the feed additive, says the Canadian Pork Council.A few other shipments from other Quebec pork processors have been rejected by China because of supposed incorrect paperwork. That's in addition to a ban on Canadian canola seeds and a few other grains in retaliation for the arrest of a Chinese hi-tech executive on a U.S. extradition request.Gary Stordy, spokesman for the Canadian Pork Council, said, “Our industry partners, the affected establishment and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency are working with Chinese authorities to better understand the details of the case of a positive Ractopamine test. A comprehensive review of this situation is being conducted by CIFA and we are awaiting the details of investigation.”Ractopamine is added to feed to make pork leaner. The European Union, China and Russia have banned it while 27 countries, including the United States, Japan, Australia and South Korea say meat from livestock fed the product are safe for human consumptionStordy said, “Canadian pork producers do not use ratopamine to raise hogs and ensure their animals do not come in contact with the product through the Canadian Ractopamine-Free Pork Certification Program. This assurance is provided through thorough record keeping and routine audits at the farm and on-farm feed mill, commercial feed mill, and federally inspected slaughterhouse. All parties share the responsibility in establishing and maintaining this assurance and have confidence in the program.”Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau told reporters June 18 that pork exporters know that product treated with the product will be rejected by China and that's why most hog farmers don't use it. As part of the CFIA investigation, “we're having a conversation with the company involved. So we're trying to find out what happened really.”Canada is also waiting for China to provide proof of the ractopamine presence in the shipment, she said. Canada is taking the incident seriously.“Exporters and the pork industry need to be very vigilant to make sure they respect all the rules of our export agreement with China and with all other countries,” she said.  CFIA is investigating whether “ractopamine was in the product, where it comes from, why. So we will need a little bit more time to give you more detail.”She would not speculate on whether other pork shipments would be affected. “It's definitely not a good news and we will follow up because you know how we care about the reliability of our system and we will find out what happened.”The product poses no danger to human health, she said. While China doesn't accept it, “it follows the regulation in many other countries so there's no risk for the health.”Alex Binkley is a freelance journalist and writes for domestic and international publications about agriculture, food and transportation issues. He's also the author of two science fiction novels with more in the works.