Restaurants are placing themselves at greater risk by importing Chinese goods

Ethnic restaurants importing goods direct from China could be putting their reputation and the health of their customers at risk, according to a new report.

Insurer and risk management firm Aon has warned that while there are many advantages to importing food and beverages from China, food safety standards are still some way behind those of the EU, despite recent improvements.

While the EU has some of the strictest food safety laws in the world, China still heads the global league for food safety alerts - by some way - with 345 alerts issued by European officials last year (an improvement over 500 in 2008).

Christof Bentele, global managing director of Aon's product recall team, said: "Many EU firms see the advantages of importing from China, and indeed there are many. However, the physical and regulatory distance between the EU and China make the risk of doing so higher than buying from a firm within the EU."

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By Chris Druce

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