Now, the government is ordering some strong medicine.

On Wednesday, the nation's Cabinet vowed to strictly enforce standards and crack down on errant products in an open-ended safety campaign.

Authorities also announced the detention of managers from two companies linked to contaminated pet food that killed dogs and cats in North America and South Africa.

State media, meanwhile, said the country's disgraced former top drug regulator would go on trial this month on charges of taking bribes to approve untested medicine.

China has long suffered adverse publicity tied to its notoriously lax enforcement of food and drug safety, but the present round has been especially worrying.

China faces criticism from the US and European Union for what they allege are unfair trade practices, and tainted food scandals could lead to bans on food products that would put hard-pressed Chinese farmers under even greater strain.

Already this year, the US states of Mississippi and Alabama have banned catfish from China after tests found ciprofloxacin and enrofloxacin, antibiotics banned for use in the United States.

Louisiana officials said Monday they'd begin testing Chinese seafood for the antibiotics.

China's government body responsible for overseeing food safety said it had detained an unspecified number of managers from Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development Co.

Ltd.

and Binzhou Futian Biology Technology Co.

Ltd.

That came after the US Food and Drug Administration cited the firms as the source of pet food ingredients tainted with melamine, a chemical used in plastics, fertilisers and flame retardants.

US inspectors said the tainted gluten was used to make pet food and caused the deaths of an unknown number of dogs and cats, sparking a recall of nearly 100 brands of pet food contaminated with the chemical, which artificially boosts nitrogen levels, making products seem higher in protein.

"Relevant departments will deal strictly with the lawbreaking companies and those responsible according to the results of the investigation," the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said on its Web site.

It said the companies broke regulations by adding the melamine, then broke the law by mislabelling the exported products to avoid inspection.

Calls to the companies were not answered and police refused to comment.

Detention centre phone numbers were not listed.

Separately, the State Council, or Cabinet, said the nationwide crackdown would compel companies to adopt "standards used in food-importing countries ...

and test products which will be used to make animal feed or food for humans."

The government must "strengthen its investigations into protein products, especially melamine," the notice said.

It said all classes of food and drug would be subject to more rigorous inspections, with an emphasis on securing the food supply chain and boosting food safety in the vast, mostly impoverished countryside.

US officials say they don't believe melamine to be harmful to humans, but say they have too little data to determine how it reacts with other substances.

Nampa-AP

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