China Says Food Safety Challenges Remain

A four-month-long campaign to improve the quality of China's food products has achieved encouraging progress but challenges remain, Agriculture Vice Minister Gao Hongbin said Tuesday.

China launched the campaign in August to address product quality and safety problems, including food safety, in the wake of problems found in its exports. The campaign has focused attention on domestic food safety, and the government is developing its first-ever food safety law.

"However, regulation of quality and safety of agricultural products is still faced with arduous challenges," Gao said in a statement.

Agricultural products are particularly hard to control given their short shelf life and long production period, he said. Controlling production environments is also a challenge.

The government will strengthen its inspection and testing of products and promote the standardization of agricultural practices, he said.

The compliance rate for pesticide residue for vegetables under surveillance increased to 95.3 percent in November from 93.2 percent in September, Gao said.

The amount of pork tainted with clenbuterol, a banned feed additive, also declined. The compliance rate for clenbuterol residue in pork increased to 98.4 percent in November from 97.7 percent in September, he said.

In late 2006, almost 300 people in Shanghai were hospitalized after eating pork believed to have contained clenbuterol.