The State Food and Drug Administration said Saturday that Johnson & Johnson baby products made in China were safe to use and that they had found no evidence of them containing potential carcinogens as alleged by an activist group.

On its website the Shanghai Food and Drug Administration said they had found no contamination by formaldehyde, or 1,4-dioxane, in 33 products which included 14 bath or sanitary-related items sold by the Shanghai branch of the company. It said, "The State Food and Drug Administration will continue to closely monitor the situation and do testing in a timely manner."

China's state-run Xinhua news agency reported Saturday that the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine also cleared the products.

It started when in a March 12 report by U. S.-based health and environmental activist group Campaign for Safe Cosmetics said that baby products they had tested were found to contain formaldehyde, or 1,4-dioxane. Johnson & Johnson baby shampoo and other products were among dozens from different manufacturers listed by them.

As a result of the report, Shanghai based Nong Gong Shang, Supermarkets Corp. pulled J&J's baby products from the shelves of the supermarket chain's 3,500 stores in China. Gan Pingzhong, director of Nong Gong Shang's quality-inspection department, said Sunday the supermarket chain had resumed sales of the products after authorities cleared them.

The group's allegations were denied by J&J, based in New Brunswick, N. J., and they said both chemicals are safe in trace amounts and that the company's products were in compliance with safety laws in all the countries where it sells them.

According to the official Xinhua News Agency China's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine also tested 31 batches of bath products made by Johnson & Johnson's China operations and found they met the standard for formaldehyde with one batch containing a small amount of 1,4-dioxane.

According to the U. S. Food and Drug Administration, 1,4-dioxane which is used as a solvent for paints, varnishes, cleaning and detergent preparations and as a solvent stabilizer and corrosion inhibitor, can form as a byproduct during manufacturing of some cosmetics. The FDA said levels of the chemical that it has found in cosmetics it has monitored do not present a hazard to consumers.

Formaldehyde, a preservative commonly found in construction materials, is often used as a preservative in cosmetics. According to the State Food and Drug Administration in China it is permitted for use in cosmetics to a maximum concentration of 0.2%. It said 1,4-dioxane, is banned as an additive in cosmetics, but the Xinhua report said the chemical isn't otherwise regulated in China.

Johnson & Johnson issued a statement to reassure customers and said the activists' report was unnecessarily alarming parents. According to market-research firm Euromonitor International, J&J is the largest seller of infant skin lotions and other baby-care products in China, with 69% of the $395 million market by revenue last year.

Campaign for Safe Cosmetics is urging J&J to reformulate its products to exclude the chemicals anyway.