BEIJING — Vice-Premier Wang Yang has called for more efforts to improve food safety.

“Food safety is a basic requirement,” Wang said at a meeting on the issue held in Beijing on Nov 28 and 29.

Despite improvements, there are still many problems in the industry, he noted, with some local authorities still lagging in agricultural standardization and food safety in the catering sector.

Mechanisms and supervision methods should improve the ability to manage food safety, the vice-premier said.

Wang, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, is the deputy head of the State Council’s food safety commission.

According to a guideline released last month, a product quality traceability system will be complete by 2020, targeting food, medicine, special equipment, dangerous materials and rare earth.

The system will provide information regarding sources, destinations and accountable persons to reinforce product quality and safety, the guideline said.