China strengthens legal supervision over food

BEIJING - China has strengthened its supervision over food safety in the past five years through legislation and inspection on compliance of relevant laws, said Wu Bangguo, the country's top legislator in Beijing Friday.

To address serious problems of illegal use and misuse of food additives, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) enacted the Law on Food Safety and conducted two rounds of inspections on compliance with the law, said Wu, when reviewing the work over the past five years.

The Standing Committee has also prompted the State Council, China's cabinet, and its relevant departments to improve the mechanism for coordinating food safety work and create a risk monitoring and assessment mechanism for food safety, he said when delivering the work report of the 11th NPC Standing Committee at the First Session of the 12th NPC.

To help solve problems in drinking water safety for urban and rural residents, the Standing Committee listened to and deliberated the State Council's report on the issue and called for effectively strengthening protection and management of drinking water sources, he said.