China to elevate food, drug agency to general administration

BEIJING, March 10 (Xinhua) -- China plans to elevate the status of the existing State Administration of Food and Drug to a general administration in order to improve food and drug safety, according to a report to be delivered by State Councilor Ma Kai to the annual session of the country's top legislature on Sunday.

The proposed ministry-level General Administration of Food and Drug will be responsible for carrying out a unified supervision on food and drug safety and quality in the process of production, circulation and consumption, says the report on the State Council institutional reform and transformation of government functions.

Overlapping of supervision from different departments and some supervision "blind spots" are weak links of the current food safety supervision system, the report says.