The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said its local offices have found harmful substances in nearly 10 batches of food imports from Japan in recent days.

In one case, inspection authorities in Zhejiang Province in East China detected an arsenic content 22 times over the national limit in two batches of frozen fish imported from Japan.

In another case, authorities in Liaoning in northeast China detected higher-than-permissible lead content in soy bean cooking oil imported from Japan.

Other products in which harmful elements were found include soy sauce and peanuts.

The watchdog said it has ordered local offices to beef up the inspection of food imports from Japan.

On Thursday last week, the quality watchdog said it had detected neodymium and chromium - banned substances which can cause allergic dermatitis and eczema - in Japanese SK-II cosmetic products.

P&G China, the distributor of SK-II in China, has begun to recall the suspect products, but insists its products are safe.

A day before that, the Chinese quality watchdog said it had detected excessive contents of lead, cadmium, preservatives and other harmful elements in nearly 30 batches of food imported from Japan.

It said that the Japanese government had been informed of the finds and asked to tighten control over the quality of food exported to China.