By Ju Chuanjiang (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-10-27 10:19

The country's campaign to improve product quality and food safety has yielded very good results, Vice-Premier Wu Yi said in Weifang, Shandong Province, October 26, 2007. [Newsphoto]

Weifang - The country's campaign to improve product quality and food safety has yielded very good results, Vice-Premier Wu Yi said on Friday.

Despite that she urged: "We have to win this special war against poor product quality and supervision, enabling our people to eat without fear."

Wu said the government has raised its investment in agriculture, especially in pesticide supervision and fertilizers management and to prevent fake products from entering the sector.

Besides, authorities will strengthen supervision and inspection on vegetables and other food products in major cities, bringing all wholesale markets within the authorities' monitoring system.

Officials are already monitoring all wholesale markets for agricultural products in 676 medium- and large-sized cities, Minister of Agriculture Sun Zhengcai said.

Latest data suggest 94 percent vegetables and 95 percent aquatic products in cities have pesticide residue below the danger level.

Also, more than 97.4 per cent of the pigs are slaughtered in registered abattoirs. The authorities closed down 602 illegal and 4,051 slaughterhouses in the first half of this year alone.

Concerns over Chinese products safety prompted the government to formed a cabinet-level panel on food safety and quality control under the vice-premier in August.

Eight categories of products are under the panel's scanner, including pork, drugs, agricultural products, processed food, toys and electric wires. The "special war" is aimed at improving product quality in four months.

At a meeting in Weifang, Shandong Province, Wu lauded the province's advanced practice in product quality and food security management.

"Shandong's experience in standardized plantation of vegetables, aquatic products and some other agricultural products has been proved effective and worth promoting nationwide," Wu said.

It brings irrigation and the condition of cultivable areas, particularly where chemicals are used, under a quality control system, which will be overseen by local officials, Shandong Governor Jiang Daming said.

The province has taken the lead in the country to set up internationally recognized systems of quality standards, quality testing, attestation and supervision, securing a high standard of food quality from every link of production, processing and transportation.

And more than 400,000 people in the province have attended into food safety education training sessions since August.