每日英语：China Cracks Down on Food Safety

Authorities in China's political and financial capitals plan crackdowns on companies that violate food-safety regulations, after scrutiny of drugs given to locally served chickens.

crackdown：镇压，制裁，惩罚　　　　scrutiny：监视，详细审查

The crackdowns in Beijing and Shanghai mark a new effort by local authorities to bolster food safety in a country increasingly worried about what it consumes. But analysts question whether such measures will be effective in changing China's slack attitude to food safety.

bolster：支持，支撑　　　slack：松弛的，疏忽的，不流畅的　

In a statement posted on its website and dated Thursday, the Shanghai Municipal Food Safety Committee said food companies found engaging in any of 11 types of harmful food-safety practices would be blacklisted and prevented from engaging in the food business, and barred from receiving subsidies from the government or benefiting from preferential government policies.

subsidy：补助，津贴　　　　　　preferential：优先的，选择的

The harmful practices would include the production of food from inedible substances or dangerous materials, or using prohibited food additives. Executives of the companies would also face censure under the new rules.

censure：责难，谴责　　　　inedible：不可食用的　　　　food additives：食品添加剂

Shanghai Municipal Food Safety Committee officials weren't available for comment.

Separately, the state-run Xinhua news agency later Thursday said Beijing would soon introduce its own tighter food-safety laws. Food producers or vendors will be banned from the sector for life if they produce or sell unsafe food, it said, while executives of companies that commit violations won't be allowed to operate in the industry for five years. It also bans the reuse of discarded oil, called gutter oil, a persistent problem in China.

vendor：卖主，小贩，供应商　　　　

Though the Shanghai notice didn't mention it, the city has been in the food-safety spotlight in recent weeks following a report by state-run China Central Television that alleged suppliers to Yum Brands Inc. YUM +0.65% ─owners of the KFC chain─had improperly used antibiotics and questioned the company's food-safety practices.

antibiotics：抗生素　　　　allege：宣称，断言　　　　

Subsequent tests by the Shanghai Food and Drug Administration of samples of raw chicken taken from a Yum facility in Shanghai found the KFC arm had complied with government limits on antibiotics. But the authority said more tests were needed after the discovery of what it called suspicious levels of an antiviral drug. While the antiviral drug─amantadine, commonly used to fight influenza─currently isn't limited under Chinese law, authorities said they wanted to consult with experts to create a standard for its use in agriculture.

KFC has previously said it is committed to food safety and that it is cooperating with authorities. If referred questions to its U.S. headquarters, and people there weren't immediately available for comment.

committed to：完全相信，决心从事　　　　

China has had many food-safety scares in recent years. Many analysts blame on the country's highly fragmented agricultural sector, which they say makes monitoring of farming practices almost impossible

Some food-safety experts questioned the effectiveness of the latest approach proposed by the Shanghai authorities. 'Safe food depends on production, not on supervision,' said Wu Yongning, chief scientist of the China National Center for Food Safety Risk Assessment. 'All that's needed is credibility--credible people will produce safe food.'

Polls of Chinese public sentiment show increasing worries about food after scandals involving everything from dairy to eggs to gelatin capsules. The issue galvanized the public in 2008 when dairy producers were discovered to have added the industrial chemical melamine to baby formula, causing the deaths of six infants and illnesses in 300,000 others.

sentiment：感情，情绪，观点　　　　gelatin capsules：凝胶胶囊　　　　melamine：三聚氰胺

'The challenge has been for regulators to catch the violating companies before the companies' practices become a national food safety and media crisis,' said James Rice, CEO of CSM CSM.AE +0.31%China, a unit of Dutch bakery-products supplier CSM. Calling the new law an 'additive,' Mr. Rice said, 'China's enforcement agencies have enough authority to enforce the law, and we have seen them resolve food safety crisis issues effectively in the past.' But he adds that 'regulators are stretched to the limit of their manpower, given that there are literally hundreds of thousands of small food producers in the country.'

In the U.S., the Food and Drug Administration announced new rules in April to reduce the use of antibiotics. The FDA estimates farm animals consumed 29.1 million pounds of antibiotics in 2010, up from 28.7 million pounds a year earlier, although animals are tested to ensure there are no residues in meat.