Beijing, March 2 - China said on Monday that food security remains "grim" after a series of health scandals, the most recent being last year's tainted milk formula that killed at least six toddlers and made almost 300,000 sick.
A new food safety law, approved on Saturday in an accelerated process after the milk scandal came to light in September, attempts to fix a fragmented regulatory system.
"At present, China's food security situation remains grim with high risks and contradictions," the Ministry of Health said in documents handed to reporters on Monday.
The food safety law, which takes effect on June 1, sets quality and safety standards for products and lays out a regulatory system as well as a risk-monitoring system.
It is supposed to coordinate a number of ministries and reduce areas of overlap or of no supervision at all.
"The big reason for the new law is that the Sanlu incident drove home the severity of the problem. It made us realise that we need to strengthen oversight and regulatory systems," said Chen Xiaohong, vice minister of health charged with food safety.
China sentenced two people to death in January for producing or selling milk adulterated with melamine, and jailed the chairwoman of now bankrupt dairy producer Sanlu Group for life.
CRISIS OF CONFIDENCE
China approved in principle a new food-safety law in October 2007 following scandals involving unsafe toothpaste, drugs, toys, seafood and pet food, among other products.
Nonetheless, thousands of children developed kidney stones and other kidney-related illnesses after melamine, an industrial compound used in making plastics and fertilizer, was added to milk and other products to cheat protein tests, prompting Chinese-made products to be stripped from shelves worldwide.
A month later, the World Health Organisation's food safety chief, Jorgen Schlundt, called China's food safety system "disjointed" and said poor communications between ministries and agencies may have prolonged the melamine poisonings.
The melamine scandal, as well as an earlier case of poisoned dumplings sent to Japan, has hurt confidence in Chinese exports.
"In Japan, the sense of mistrust among Japanese housewives is rising," the spokesman for the Japanese Foreign Ministry, Kazuo Kodama, said on Sunday, asking for quicker results in the criminal investigation into the dumpling case.
A group of 54 people who say their children developed kidney stones and other illnesses after drinking melamine-adulterated milk are suing Qingdao Shengyuan Dairy Co Ltd for 8 million yuan ($1.2 million) in damages, Li Jinglin, their lawyer, told Reuters on Monday.
It was unclear whether the court in the eastern city of Qingdao would accept the case. The company had heard of the case, but could not provide immediate comment, a staff member told Reuters by telephone.
Parents' groups had earlier targeted two other foreign milk formula manufacturers, both of which were cleared by Chinese authorities of any unsafe additives. ($1=6.840 Yuan)