5m yuan in prizes for food safety tips

Two outlets of Yonghe King, a Taiwan-based Chinese fast food chain store, were punished after the local food authority was tipped in April that the outlets were putting illegal additives into its soup.

The outlets were ordered to stop the illegal practice and the tipster, a customer, was given a 1,650 yuan (US$262) reward, according to Yang Quan, director of 12331 food safety hot line, in comments to the Shanghai People's Congress yesterday.

Shanghai set aside 5 million yuan in rewards for information on food safety violations this year. So far, the hotline has received 21,528 calls to offer tips. Over 250,000 yuan in rewards was paid for tips this year.

Officials from Shanghai Food Safety Office said they will improve the rewards policy, simplify the process of giving rewards and speed delivery of small rewards.