CHINA'S quality watchdog has ordered a ban on imports of Italian mozzarella cheese after Italy on Friday recalled the product that was possibly tainted with cancer-causing dioxin.

"All entry and exit ports shall not handle quarantine applications for the Italian-made mozzarella," the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said yesterday in a statement on its website.

Importers must immediately stop selling the cheese and recall such products that had been sold, it said. The mailing or carrying by travelers of mozzarella into China was also prohibited.

"Every batch of other kinds of cheese products from Italy must go through laboratory tests before they are allowed to enter the country," it said.

France halted the mozzarella sales on Friday, but lifted the ban soon later after Italian authorities gave assurances that no such products had been on sale in France, according to foreign media reports.

But the Chinese quality watchdog confirmed, "Mozzarella cheese have been exported to China."