China Cracks Down on Food Safety Violators...

...in its own gentle way. China said today that it had demolished the facilities of more than 2,800 rural food makers as part of its effort to crack down on shoddy, fake or substandard food, according to the official Xinhua news agency. Beijing has been moving aggressively in recent months to complete a six-month long campaign to root out fake and substandard food, drugs, toys and other consumer goods, after a year of scandals involving product safety. While the government has insisted through much of the year that the country’s products are safe, the government has acknowledged uncovering tens of thousands of problem or dangerous operations over the past six months. Yesterday, regulators said that this year more than 20,000 tons of substandard products were removed from shelves in rural markets and stores, and that they had closed more than 47,000 food factories that were operating illegally. More here.