Quality watchdog gives imported food priority

Imported food and agricultural products will remain a top priority for supervision by the country's quality watchdog in 2014, a senior official said on Monday.

Zhi Shuping, minister of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, made the call in the wake of more than 600,000 metric tons of US corn being rejected in late 2013 for containing unapproved genetically modified materials.

He said during an annual work conference that the authority will strengthen its supervision of imported products that are daily necessities, especially imported food and agricultural products.