China has initiated a nationwide campaign on the illegal use of non-edible substances and food additives.

The campaign, which is jointly launched by nine Chinese ministries, including the Ministry of Health; the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology; the Ministry of Agriculture; the Ministry of Public Security; the Ministry of Supervision; the Ministry of Commerce; the State Administration for Industry & Commerce; the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine; and the State Food and Drug Administration; will last four months during which the food industry will initially be self-regulating, a complete reorganization will then be carried out and a long term mechanism will be put in place.

Chen Xiaohong, vice minister of the MOH, said the main objective of this campaign is to learn lessons from the Sanlu milk powder incident and take stringent action on the illegal use of non-edible substances and the abuse of food additives.

In September, a number of Chinese dairy companies were found to have added melamine to their dairy products following the discovery of contaminated products from Sanlu. This has caused urinary system problems for over 290,0000 children throughout the country.

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