Producers urged to improve food safety

Chinese infant milk powder producers will have to join a quality control system this year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said on June 14.

The ministry said 5,000 people in the milk powder industry will be required to attend food safety training programs this year.

Meanwhile, to improve the country's food safety, the ministry asked food companies to improve the quality of their products. The qualification rate of the industry will be required to reach 97 percent during the country's 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-15), compared with 94.6 percent in 2010.

Miao Wei, the minister of industry and information technology, said that the government will encourage food companies to use high-tech technology and to reduce pollution. A black list of illegal food factories will also be set up to curb food safety issues.

In 2011, China had more than 30,000 large food companies, representing about 9.1 percent of the country's GDP, according to Xiong Bilin, deputy head of the China National Food Industry Association.

Xiong said that although the speed of the food industry development was very fast, problems such as some firms' security methods are still serious.