November 15, 2001 — BEJING — In an effort to prevent a growing number of food-related contamination cases, the Chinese government has established a monitoring network.

The network, created by the Chinese Ministry of Health, will cover 12 province and will use data from tests on selected food products conducted over the past year to narrow down contamination sources, according to a recent report in the China Youth Daily. At a recent forum on food safety, Health Minister Zhang Wenkang promised the network will be comprehensive, with more than 200,000 health supervision experts.

“However, the situation of food safety remains serious due to the insubstantial infrastructure of food industry, and inadequate awareness of law and knowledge or workers involved in food production and circulation,” Zhang said.

Food safety concerns continue to rank high among the Chinese population. A recent study conducted by the Chinese Association for Consumers shows that 20 percent of all consumer complaints between 1998 and 2000 were about food-related problems. Foodstuffs account for about 40 percent of all consumer purchases in China.

The country has long been plagued by contamination cases. Over the past year alone, the health ministry has received more than 15 food poisoning cases that have affected 1,128 people. The latest report involves nearly 500 people being hospitalized after eating pork from pigs that were fed with asthma medicine.