China-Food Safety.

CHINA-

China’s food safety situation is still "grim", the Health Ministry said Monday after lawmakers approved new regulations over the weekend to step up supervision and standards.

Health Vice Minister Chen Xiaohong admitted at a news briefing that China had drawn "a hard lesson" from the Sanlu melamine-tainted infant formula scandal last year that killed six babies and sickened nearly 300,000 others with kidney ailments.

"It drove home the severity of food safety in China," he said.

In a handout to the media, the ministry said that "at present, China’s food security situation remains grim with high risks and contradictions".

Chen is confident that the new law would boost food safety as it provided uniform standards, a comprehensive monitoring system from source to consumer, and tracks the use of additives.

Enterprises would be the first to be held accountable for any food safety problems and authorities would seek to collect information on the use of additives to prevent a recurrence of the Sanlu tainted milk incident.

"It will be difficult to do but, despite this, we will press ahead," Chen said.

In the Sanlu case, milk dealers were accused of adding melamine, an industrial chemical used in making plastics, to artificially boost the protein level of milk purchased from farmers and supplied to the now bankrupt dairy giant.

Chen said a new standard for dairy products would be introduced later this year.

State media reported that under the new law, offenders could face maximum fines of 10 times the value of products sold and, in addition, consumers can also seek compensation of 10 times the purchase price.

The food safety law emerged after a series of suspect quality that marred China’s safety reputation at home and abroad.

The Sanlu scandal triggered a wave of recalls and shake-up of the dairy industry.

The group’s chairwoman was jailed for life and two people were sentenced to death for producing or selling melamine-adulterated milk.