Use of product tracking system 'not mandatory'

Eight stipulations relating to the proposed product identification and tracking system have been removed from the latest draft of the food safety law, a senior NPC deputy said yesterday.

The previous draft required all producers to follow the system, which has been criticized for raising production costs and having little use.

"The changes were made after careful investigation and the solicitation of public opinion," Liu Xirong, deputy director of the Law Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), told legislators in Beijing.