China has said that it has started investigating U.S. claims that a Chinese company exported contaminated wheat gluten implicated in pet deaths in the U.S. A Chinese official has said that sampling and examination of wheat gluten are in progress nationwide and will focus on melamine. The chemical is used to make plastic and as fertilizer in Asia was recognized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as the contaminant in wheat gluten imported by a U.S. company and used in pet food that was recalled last month. It is the first recent high-profile incident of a tainted product being exported. The Chinese agency that monitors food exports had earlier said that China has never exported wheat or wheat gluten to the U.S. In the meanwhile, the accused firm, Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development, had earlier maintained that the U.S. was its main overseas customer for wheat gluten and said that it had never shipped gluten directly to the U.S. The government in Beijing launched an inquiry into pet food safety, in particular a claim that contaminated wheat gluten exported to the US was responsible, after the US agency accused that the poison may have originated in China. Government officials in China said they had not found evidence of domestic poisonings so far, but would look into US government claims that the supplier of the tainted product was the company in Xuzhou, eastern China. The firm in question, Anying produces and exports more than 10,000 tons of wheat gluten a year, according to its Web site. However, only 873 tons were linked to tainted U.S. pet food, but it substantially raised the possibility that more of the contaminated product could still be on the market in China, or out of the country. The Asian Development Bank had earlier in January this year warned that China’s agricultural exports could be adversely affected by such cases. Analysts at ADB are of the view that China needs to address the underlying problems that lead to food contamination. They further confirm that the Chinese government is making efforts to address its food safety problems.