Tough rules for food safety

China has vowed to hand out the "harshest penalties" to food safety violators and to further reform the food and drug safety administration, the Xinhua News Agency reported on Saturday.

Vice Premier Wang Yang made the comment during an inspection tour of China's food safety monitoring center on Friday, the report said.

Food safety is a highly emotive issue in China where there have been numerous scandals from photos of food oil being scooped from drains to tales of phony eggs and melamine-tainted milk powder.

More recent scandals have embroiled the likes of McDonald's and KFC parent Yum Brands Inc, involving their supplier OSI Group Inc after allegations that workers at its Shanghai Husi plant doctored food production dates and used expired meat.