(Adds proposed U.S.-China agreement, details)

By Niu Shuping

BEIJING, May 10 (Reuters) - China's vice agricultural minister urged the country to set up a system to trace food from the farm to the table, and called for more regulations to help supervise food quality and safety.

His comments came as a U.S. Food and Drug Administration team was in China to investigate how melamine, a chemical product, got into pet food, killing at least 16 pets in the United States and leading to a recall of more than 100 brands of pet food.

"At present, China is in urgent need of a series of follow-ups, investigation and tracing mechanisms to ensure the quality and safety of farm products," Niu Dun wrote in an article published on the agricultural ministry Web site.

"Whenever farm products give problems, particularly those threatening consumers' life and health, responsible persons and supervision departments could be identified," Niu wrote.

China has pledged to act on food safety following the melamine breaches, and on Wednesday announced an industry clean-up that would see fertilisers, pesticides and additives in livestock feed inspected.

In Shanghai, authorities said the city had established a new testing system that could determine food safety within 30 minutes, Xinhua news agency reported, quoting the Shanghai Food and Drug Supervision Institute.

At a regular Foreign Ministry briefing, spokeswoman Jiang Yu said Beijing had investigated two companies it said had illegally exported wheat gluten and rice protein containing melamine scrap, which officials believe was mixed into pet food along with another compound.

"Based upon this investigation, the relevant agencies will, according to the law, strictly deal with businesses and related responsible individuals who have broken the law," Jiang said.

GAPS

The two companies, identified by Chinese media as Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development Co. Ltd. and Binzhou Futian Biology Technology Co. Ltd., have denied any wrongdoing.

Jiang said the Chinese agency had shared its investigation findings with the United States and had proposed setting up what she called a "mechanism" for dealing with animal feed safety.

In Washington, U.S. lawmakers met with Chinese Ambassador Zhou Wenzhong and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner on Wednesday, and secured a commitment from China to work toward an agreement on improving inspections and food safety.

"The problems derived from this pet food recall have enlightened us to the gaps in our food safety system and a memorandum of understanding between the U.S. and China would represent a positive step forward," Rep. Rosa DeLauro said in a statement.

The Chinese government was also investigating another company accused of making and selling a fake drug ingredient that killed dozens of people in Panama.

The New York Times reported the Taixing Glycerine Factory in eastern Jiangsu province had passed off cheap diethylene glycol as glycerin, an additive in many medicines and foods.

In his article, Niu wrote that China lacks rules and regulations to secure food quality and safety.

"A long-term mechanism with financial support should also be established to guarantee enough money and manpower to supervise and monitor farm products."

In South Korea, the agriculture ministry said importers had recalled Chinese wheat gluten and some U.S. pet foods after the U.S. deaths.

(Additional reporting by Chris Buckley, Vivi Lin and Lindsay Beck)

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