China to establish meat, vegetable tracking system in cities by 2015

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The Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said on Tuesday that China aims to establish a meat and vegetable tracking system in all cities with more than 1 million people by the end of 2015 to boost food safety.

The announcement comes amid public concerns over the country's food safety following a string of scandals. The system provides an information chain of production, circulation and consumption of meat and vegetables.

China established the tracking system in 10 cities last year, including Shanghai and Dalian, to protect consumers from harm, said Yao Jian, spokesman for the ministry.

The country started trailing the system in another 10 cities this year, including Tianjin and Jinan. At the present time, the system has covered 176 slaughterhouses, 100 large wholesale markets, more than 3,000 food markets, over 1,400 supermarket chains and more than 4,400 consuming groups, an unnamed official at the ministry's market supervision department said.

The tracking system is also in the interest of farmers as it can let authorities know in minutes when and where the contaminated meat and vegetables were produced, so other farmers will not be affected by the possible safety checkup, he said.