Posted: June 18th, 2012 - 4:55pm
Source: Xinhua News Agency

BEIJING -- China released a five-year plan on Friday to upgrade its food safety regulations in the country's latest efforts to address food safety concerns.
The government will improve national food safety standards by revamping outdated standards, reviewing and abolishing any contradicting or overlapping standards and working out new regulations, according to a plan posted on the website of the Ministry of Health.
China has more than 2,000 national food regulations and more than 2,900 industry-based regulations.
Many of the regulations are overlapping or contradict each other, since multiple government agencies were given the responsibility of compiling their own standards years ago.
According to the plan, 14 government departments, including the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Agriculture, will coordinate to finish revamping the existing standards by 2015.