426 dairy firms to close after inspection

BEIJING - A total of 426 dairy producers will be shut down and another 107 will have to suspend operations following a quality watchdog inspection.

Just over half of the producers inspected had authorized licenses and these were granted permission to continue operations, a senior quality inspection official said.

Li Yuanping, spokesman for the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ), the industry watchdog, said at a news conference in Beijing on Saturday that 643 dairy producers, 55 percent of 1,176 nationally registered, passed the AQSIQ inspection.