The Ministry of Health is keeping a close eye on phony food scare reports and will blacklist journalists who write such stories, the website of People's Daily reported Tuesday.

Mao Qun’an, director at the publicity center of the ministry, said at a conference?on Monday that food safety reports were increasingly worrying the public.

Earlier last month, Zhang Yong, director with the Office of the Food Safety Committee of the State Council, told the Beijing News that?fake reports, such as the one on "leather milk," exaggerated the facts and misled the public.

The ministry's move provoked hot debate among the public.

Kong Defeng, a Beijing-based lawyer, wrote on his blog that the ministry should focus on the regulation of food industry and report the relevant journalists to judicial departments.

Wang Yukai, a professor at the Chinese Academy of Governance, said fake news-producers should be punished, but the ministry should be cautious, the Global Times reported.

Over the past years, the number of food scares has multiplied in China.

In 2008, melamine-tainted milk powder killed six babies and sickened more than 300,000.

In March this year, clenbuterol, a substance used to increase the amount of lean meat in pigs, was found in the meat products of Shuanghui Group, China's largest meat processor.

With the deepening of food safety check, more and more illegal food additives have been discovered and banned.

On June 11, the State Food and Drug Administration, China's food and drug regulator, ordered a new ban on eight food products after they were found to be tainted with an industrial chemical.