Wang Jianman, vice governor of Zhejiang province, has signed a liability letter on food safety management with 11 municipal governments in the province.
The parties concerned have been asked to ensure that there will not be major accidents related to food or drug safety; nor bacterial poisoning accidents involving ten or more people; nor regional and industrial food quality problems reaching the red warning level within this year.
According to the letter, each of the cities concerned will carry out a special campaign on food safety and push forward the building of a responsibility system which puts the onus on enterprises as the premier party to take responsibility in case of accidents, with the aim of making 50% of the counties and 60% of the towns reach the standards.
It is learned that as a result of the furthering of food safety activities, food poisoning in Zhejiang province declined by 59.7% in 2008 with the number of people affected decreasing by 45.7%.