Cabinet promises no systematic food safety accidents

The Chinese government will try its best to prevent any systematic and large-scale food safety accidents, Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli pledged on Thursday.

The government will resort to the strictest supervision and toughest punishment, Zhang said at a meeting on food safety issues in 2015.

He warned that the country has to fight a long war to protect food safety since it still faces serious challenges and high risks and has an "inadequate" supervision system.

The government will upgrade supervision on the agriculture sector and food manufacturers so as to identify and address problems while they are small, said Zhang, also head of an inter-ministerial food safety committee under the State Council.

The government will spend more on completing a monitoring network and efficient plans for food safety emergencies while continuing to build local regulatory agencies.

The government will impose strict supervision on food manufacturers and distributors so that "they will not, can not and dare not break the law," Zhang said.

It will encourage the public to play a more active part in supervising the industry, he said.

The government will soon start a national operation to make sure food is safe during the Spring Festival and the annual parliamentary session.