248 Chinese officials arrested over food safety flaws in 2010

Beijing, Jan 31 (ANI): A total of 248 people have reportedly been detained in China for involvement in food safety cases last year.

Besides, a total of 191 officials were punished for failing to do their duty in food safety enforcement, with 26 of them fired, Xinhua quoted a statement of China's National Food Safety Regulating Work Office, as saying.

In 2010, they have dealt with 130,000 cases involving areas like production of edible agricultural produce, food production, food circulation, catering services and food exports and imports.

"No major incident occurred last year, and the overall food safety situation maintained stable," said the statement.

They also conducted a nationwide crackdown on "gutter oil", usually made from discarded kitchen waste that has been refined, after media had alleged that it was used in small restaurants.

Since July, the concerned authorities in the country had also cracked down on the use of indisposed tainted milk powder produced before the melamine scandal of 2008, and seized around 2,132 tonnes of melamine-tainted milk powder, the statement added. (ANI)