The number of reported food poisoning cases in China fell to 147 from September to November, nine percent down from the same period last year, said a Ministry of Health official on Monday.

Wang Xuening, vice director of the ministry's health surveillance bureau, attributed the decline to a nationwide campaign on food safety in the catering sector.

"It played an effective role in enhancing health standards and preventing poisoning cases and intestinal infectious disease," Wang said of the campaign the ministry initiated in August.

The number of people affected by food poisoning saw a 30-percent drop, from 5,296 to 3,592 in the past three months, he added.

During the campaign, the ministry closed down more than 40,000 restaurants operating without health certificates and suspended the operations of another 2,056 for food or other health problems.

(Xinhua News Agency, December 11, 2007)