Health Ministry:Stricter Supervision on Production Line for Food Additive

China's Ministry of Health has now announced stricter supervision on the food production process for additives.

It joins a number of local governments to crack down on the illegal use of food additives, following a string of food scandals.

Wang Jing has more.

A new government standard about the use of food additive is to take effect next month. It bans the use of obsolete and unnecessary food additives.

Yan Weixing, from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, says they have strengthened checks on the necessity of using certain additives.

"Non-edible substances are forbidden by food safety law, but food additives are used to improve quality and taste and contribute to food safety. We have strengthened checks now. Food additives can only be used when it is both safe and needed."

A food additive blacklist published lately by the Health Ministry has put the chemical substance Sudan red and poppy shell on the warning list. Sudan red was found on KFC chicken wings back in 2005 and poppy shell is believed to be widely used in hot pots.

Zhang Xudong is in charge of supervision standard at the Heath Ministry.

"Production companies need to avoid purchasing and applying these substances in their production. Substances that are

blacklisted have caused safety problems. The emphasis of our job is to try to avoid the same accidents from happening again."

More recently a number of provinces have taken action in response to the illegal use of food additives.

In Beijing, a seven-month long campaign has started to combat the issue. People who are found to be involved in the production and application of illegal additives will banned from working in the catering sector for five years.

Mao Yu is from the Beijing Municipal Health Bureau.

"Restaurants that make their own hotpot soup or drinks and ingredients are required to report to the supervision department of the additives they use, and the additives will have to be publicized in restaurants or on their menus."

Meanwhile, in Jilin province, round-the-clock hotlines have been set up for food safety complaints. While in Guangxi supervisors are now equipped with additive detecting devices, which are reportedly able to quickly identify for 27-kinds of illegal food additives.

For CRI, I'm Wang Jing.