NANCHANG, April 26 (Xinhua) -- Seven people have been charged with allegedly producing toxic bean sprouts in east China's Jiangxi Province, local authorities said Friday.
The suspects, all from Jingdezhen City, stand accused of using illegal additives in the process of producing bean sprouts, according to the city's procuratorate.
The additives are believed to help speed up the growth cycle of the plants, increase output and slow their decay, but are banned from being used in food production.
Authorities in Leping City, which is administered by Jingdezhen, raided the workshop of a bean sprout producer surnamed Tao in January. They confiscated over 500 kilograms of bean sprouts, nine bags of suspicious chemical powder and one bag of bleaching powder.
A probe into the case revealed that since last year, Tao had produced about 10,000 kg of bean sprouts processed with hormones and bleaching powder.
China has been plagued by food safety problems, and the government has vowed to improve the situation.
In its latest move, the Chinese government announced last week that it will overhaul food safety standards and crack down on illegal food additives.
In a circular setting major tasks for food safety in 2013, the State Council, China's cabinet, also pledged to improve supervision and crack down on the use of food additives and pesticide residue, as well as target other food-related violations.
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