A vendor sells cooked food at a market in Shenyang, northeast China's Liaoning Province June 6, 2007. China will launch a sweeping offensive against dangerous medicines and bad food, the government announced in a new plan that also promises stronger international cooperation. [Reuters]

China will launch a long-term offensive against dangerous medicines and bad foods that have alarmed consumers, the government announced in a plan that vows stronger export controls.

"Ensuring food and pharmaceutical safety for the public must be the starting point and destination of all work," states the document issued on the government Web site (www.gov.cn) late on Tuesday.

The five-year campaign promises nationwide monitoring of adverse reactions to drugs, special inspections to cover 90 percent of food production businesses, and strict controls to stop farmers and producers over-using pesticides and additives.

This drive promises to defuse mounting domestic and foreign fears about medicines, farm produce, toothpaste, pet foods and many other daily goods.

"Monitoring and administering food and pharmaceutical safety must be at the very heart of grassroots and base work," it says.

The five-year plan vows that in coming years "illegal activities behind production and sale of fake and shoddy foods and pharmaceuticals will be effectively contained."

(Reuters)