Yang Xueshan, vice-minister of industry and information technology, said the campaign would help cleanse the market of illegal producers of food additives.

"Most food additives are produced by small units, and the campaign is expected to wipe out those with poor management and equipment."

Yang said companies misusing food additives face closure if they don't streamline their production or fail quality control tests.

The China Food Additives and Ingredients Association has approved about 2,000 food additives. Association figures show about 2,000 companies produced 5.24 million tons of such products last year. And more than 1,000 companies deal with such additives.

Compensation team

On the sidelines of the conference, senior officials said the government has formed a team to handle the compensation issue in the contaminated-milk case. The products of dairy giant Sanlu are blamed for the maximum number of infant deaths and ailments.

"The team consists of officials of several central government departments and is led by the State Administration for Industry and Commerce," Chen said.

Pu confirmed the formation of the team, and said the AQSIQ is part of it. "For sure, there will be compensation for victims in the Sanlu case."

(China Daily December 9, 2008)