CHENGDU - China's main quality watchdog said on Saturday that it will strive to build credit files for all the food companies and food-additive producers in the country before the end of the year.

The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said that as food safety becomes a growing public concern in China, the mechanism will better supervise food companies and the quality of their products.

In the first five months of the year, quality regulators across the country found a total of 3,312 companies using illegal food additives, according to figures released by the government agency at a meeting held in Chengdu, capital city of Southwest China's Sichuan province.

The agency said authorities also revoked the production licenses of 24 food companies and three other food-additive companies.

The authorities established credit files for 82,387 businesses during the same period.

Xinhua

(China Daily 07/25/2011 page3)