Chinese authorities announced on Thursday that they have arrested about 2,000 people and closed down approximately 5,000 companies, in a campaign to ensure food security, launched in April, after a series of food scandals.
About six million manufacturing and distribution sites were inspected during the campaign, it said in a statement of the Committee on Food Security, adding that those found guilty will be dealt with harshly.
China promised, in September 2010, a strict application of the death penalty to those convicted of most serious crimes against food security.
The country was faced frequently with scandals in the food sector. Recent scandals have were pointing to recycled cooking oil, eggs dyed with harmful colors, carcinogenic mushrooms, counterfeit tofu (soybean paste) or altered wine.
Authorities were notified, in April, of the presence of the clenbuterol substance in pork meat, an anabolic that reduce the volume of fat for muscle, after they discovered the traditional Chinese food dishes prepared by steam stained with chemicals.
Pork meat, which contained so many bacteria that it became fluorescent in the dark was found, but also carcinogenic soy with nitrates and rice contaminated with heavy metals. Add to this the large amount of rice noodles made from rotten grains, sold with additives containing potential carcinogens.
The most resounding scandal remains the one of milk contaminated with melamine, which in 2008 caused the death of six children and illness of other 300,000.
Twenty-one people were prosecuted for involvement in this. Two were sentenced to death and executed.