BEJING, China, July 28 China has issued news rules on food safety amid criticism at home and abroad about the quality of Chinese products, it was reported Saturday.
China's State Council acted to tighten control over food producers and distributors, reported Xinhua, China's official news agency.
The new rules order inspection and quarantine authorities to keep detailed records on Chinese food exporters and to submit the records to the media regularly, Xinhua reported.
Food exporters who fake quality certificates or evade inspections are to be fined three times the product's value, while local governments at the county level are to bear the main responsibility for supervising food product safety, the Council ordered.
As for items coming into China, importers who allow unsafe products into the country could be severely punished and the foreign companies they deal with blacklisted from future business with China, Xinhua reported.
Copyright 2007 by UPI
