Output value of China's food industry is expected to grow 16.7 percent year-on-year, according to China National Food Industry Association (CNFIA).

Liu Zhi, CNFIA executive vice chairman, told the Seventh China Food Safety Annual Meeting held on Saturday, that output value of the country's food industry was expected to top 4.9 trillion yuan ($717 billion) this year.

In the first five months of this year, output of the country's food industry was 1.82 trillion yuan, an increase of 14.6 percent over the same period last year.

According to Xiang, the country's food safety watchdogs at all levels launched inspections to one million food producers this year, registered and investigated 70,000 cases.

Rate of qualified food products was 98.5 percent in the first half of this year, according to the country's food safety inspection departments nationwide, said Xiang.