Chinese vice premier Wu Yi urged on Friday more "solid" efforts to further carry out the nationwide campaign aimed at improving product quality and food safety.
Wu asked local governments to standardize good practices for securing food safety and product quality, and ordered the advancement of a crackdown on products in distribution as well as in production, at a second on-the-site meeting held in Shandong since the launch of the campaign in August.
"Local governments of each district, county or city should make sure there remains no den producing or selling fake products in the region," Wu said.
The campaign mainly targets farm produce, processed food, the catering sector, drugs, pork, imported and exported goods and products closely linked to human safety and health.
The four-month overhaul, described by Wu as a "special battle" to ensure product quality and food safety, has seen 667 tons of unqualified or fake food products destroyed and 446 tons removed from marketplaces by October 8.
Sun Zhengcai, Minister of Agriculture, said at the meeting that all the wholesale markets of farm produce in the country's 676 large and medium-sized cities have been brought under the monitoring of local agricultural departments.
Before the launch of the campaign, only 56 percent of these wholesale markets were subject to monitoring, Sun said.
Sun said a recent nationwide spot-check conducted by the Agriculture Ministry showed that more than 94 percent of the farm produce passed tests for pesticide residues.
More than 99 percent of the country's livestock products were free from banned steroid drug used to increase lean meat, and more than 95 percent of the aquatic products were qualified in drug residue testing, according to Sun.
The meeting said 626 criminal cases involving the production or sales of substandard food, drugs and farm produce have been filed during the campaign, with 774 suspects brought under control.
Wu also called for strict enforcement of the recall systems for unsafe food products and toys, a mechanism introduced by China in August to boost production safety.
(Xinhua News Agency October 27, 2007)
