The Beijing food safety authority has pledged to make greater efforts in inspecting catering businesses and food processing facilities across the city to ensure food safety.

Breakfast stands will be one of the key areas that will be scrutinized and those stands that fail to meet hygienic and quality control standards will be closed down, said a spokesman with the Beijing Food Safety Office.

Wang Xiaojing, an official in charge of publicity with the municipal department for industry and commerce, said her department had listed catering ventures and breakfast stands as industries posing high risks to food safety and would increase daily inspections.

The city's law enforcement departments have concentrated efforts in clamping down on caterers operating without permits.

The municipal department of commerce plans to select a group of "role model" enterprises to help the entire catering trade to improve the level of its management.

There are now more than 45,900 catering businesses, including hotels, restaurants and franchises, in Beijing.

In the first six months of the year, the municipal hygienic department carried out a specialized sanitation inspection of more than 10,000 eating outlets and a group of small and medium-sized enterprises were fined more than 4 million yuan.

According to Wang, the municipal department of industry and commerce received 2,980 complaints about food problems from January to June this year.

(Xinhua News Agency July 25 2007)