Wen says China to improve food safety - Kyodo

BEIJING, July 18 (Reuters) Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao pledged today to improve food safety in the wake of a rash of product safety scandals that sparked criticism from abroad, Kyodo news agency reported.

In a meeting with visiting Japanese House of Representatives Speaker Yohei Kono, Wen said ''the Chinese government will keep a sharper eye on domestic food companies and improve the quality of their products'', Kyodo quoted un-named Japanese government sources as saying.

Wen was the most senior official to comment since the latest wave of scandals broke.

The deaths of patients in Panama from mislabelled drug ingredients from China, deadly toxins in pet food and food laced with additives and antibiotics have fanned public anxiety globally about the safety of China's surging exports.

China has taken the product safety issue seriously, and earlier this month executed a former food and drug safety chief for corruption and dereliction of duty.

But Beijing has also been pushing back.

Yesterday a Chinese newspaper quoted a senior quality supervision official as saying foreign media had hyped up China's food and drug safety problems.

And at the weekend, China suspended imports of pork and poultry from some U.S. suppliers after finding salmonella-contaminated chicken and meat products with growth agents and other additives.

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