Chinese vice premier vows harshest penalties for food safety

Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang on Friday pledged further reforms in food and drug safety administration as well as "harshest penalties" for relevant violations.

Wang made the remarks during an inspection tour in Beijing.

He visited the city's food safety monitoring center and talked with grassroots law enforcers of local food and drug safety administrative authorities.

Authorities' responsibility of administration and supervision should be concretely implemented, Wang said.

The strictest supervision should be carried out to create a fair market environment, the harshest penalties should be used to deter violations, and the most serious accountability system should be established to punish those who fail to perform their duties, the vice premier said.