Vice premier calls for utmost efforts to ensure food safety

BEIJING -- Chinese Vice Premier Han Zheng on June 13 stressed that utmost efforts should be made in developing standards, conducting regulation, imposing penalties and seeking accountability to ensure food safety.

Progress in food safety should be made by constantly identifying related problems and solving them, Han, who also heads the State Council's food safety committee, made the remarks at a committee seminar.

Related administrative approval system should be reformed while efforts will be made to improve the social credit system, Han said.

China unveiled a guideline in May to enhance the country's food safety with a phased plan to build a modern governance mechanism in the field.

More than 97 percent of the country's major produce should pass quality and food safety test by 2020, while over 98 percent of food should pass spot checks, according to the guideline released by central authorities.

By 2035, China should have a set of world-leading food safety standards, a marked drop in illegal practices and globally advanced risk control capabilities.

The guideline called for joint contribution from all stakeholders including governments, enterprises and consumers.