A risk assessment center focusing on food safety and product quality in Shanghai will be set up this month, it was announced on Friday.

"Illegal chemicals added to food have led to several major scares across China," Huang Xiaolu, head of the Shanghai product quality supervision bureau, wrote on an Internet forum. "Due to the impact of last year's tainted powdered milk, consumer confidence went right down.

"And despite frequent government crackdowns, illegal non-food substances remain a threat and we should try to erase the problem through early detection, warning and intervention."

The center will evaluate the risks posed by a product and, in the event of finding any defect or possible health risk, will issue a recall notice across the city.

Huang said the government is now on high alert for possible safety issues as it prepares to host the World Expo 2010 and will enhance its resources in product safety this year to better protect the public.

A centre to test for defective products was set up in Shanghai in May last year and had already analyzed 747 products by December, 337 of them were in the top priority groups.

Plans for an office to monitor the quality of the food served at the expo were also announced this year by the Shanghai Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

It will be responsible for checking standards from the raw ingredients to when it served to the table in a bid to avoid potential quality issues and food poisoning.

The FDA also vowed to tighten its inspections on local food and drug markets this year, as well as inform the public on products that fail its checks.

(China Daily March 2, 2009)