Beijing Launches Food Safety Crackdown

Chinese girls eats snack near a food store at the Wang Fu Jing street in Beijing, China, Sunday, Sept. 2, 2007. China will launch a nationwide inspection on food safety in its rural areas and urban-rural conjunctive regions, as a part of a four-month nationwide campaign to improve the quality of goods and food safety in China, the special inspection will target "small-sized food companies, workshops and restaurants in rural areas," in an effort to eradicate hidden dangers of food accidents, according to a notice released by China's food and drug watchdog. (AP Photo/Andy Wong) (Andy Wong - AP)

BEIJING -- Beijing is targeting unlicensed restaurants and checking the quality of many foods in a crackdown on unsafe products less than a year before the city welcomes hundreds of thousands of visitors to the Summer Olympics, state media said Sunday.

The four-month campaign is part of a nationwide drive to ensure food and product safety, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

China has come under intense international scrutiny this year over the safety of its products. Dangerous chemicals _ from lead to an antifreeze ingredient _ have been found in exported goods including toys and toothpaste.

Domestically, scares have centered on fake milk powder that led to the deaths of at least a dozen babies and the use of a banned industrial dye to color egg yolks.

Beijing's product safety plan calls for the closure of all unlicensed restaurants by the end of this year. Additionally, all food producers must be qualified and no harmful material can be used in food processing, Xinhua said.

Authorities will also check to ensure the quality of vegetables, fruit, meat, edible oil, seafood, children's food and health food, the news agency said. Drugs, home appliances and toys will also be targeted in the campaign.

"Currently, the main problem in the city's product quality and food safety lies in small food processing factories and workshops and in the urban-rural fringe areas," Beijing Vice Mayor Lu Hao was quoted as saying.

The city will also ban medical ads with celebrity spokesmen or experts who provide testimonials on the effectiveness of products.

China has taken great pains to ensure food safety for next year's Olympics, a great source of pride for the country. Organizers have said they will use global positioning satellites to track food shipments from the field to the consumer.

On Friday, China's first recall systems for unsafe food and toys came into effect, one of the strongest steps taken by Beijing to clean up the country's scandal-hit manufacturing industry. They require manufacturers to stop production and sales, notify vendors and customers, and report to quality control authorities when defects are found.