The central government yesterday approved the first comprehensive law on food safety - a culmination of its recent food quality control campaign aimed at alleviating domestic and international concerns over substandard goods.
The Food Safety Law had been passed in principle by the Standing Committee of the State Council and would be submitted to the National People's Congress, Xinhua reported.
Analysts hailed the legislation as representing the first concerted legal effort to tackle a precarious food safety situation that had put the country under intense international scrutiny for the past few months.
'It's China's first law entirely devoted to food safety issues,' said Li Jianrong , a professor at Zhejiang Industry and Commerce University's Food Safety and Environmental Science College. The institution took part in drafting the law.
'It aims to cover the whole spectrum of the food industry, which for the past decade has evolved into a massive machine without a steering wheel,' he said.
There had previously been no national law to regulate the food industry, which generated output valued at 1.5 trillion yuan last year, Professor Li said.