BEIJING, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- Chinese authorities have launched a national food safety campaign, requiring the "strictest" supervision over the food sector and the "harshest" penalties for violations.

The crackdown, which runs from September 2019 to December 2020, was initiated by the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) in collaboration with the State Administration for Market Regulation and the National Medical Products Administration.

The campaign will target food safety in areas including schools, food wholesale markets and cold storage logistics centers, and focus on cases involving medicines, food for infants and children and food sold on the Internet, e-commerce platforms and social media, said the SPP at a press conference.

"Although the overall situation of food and drug safety has improved significantly in recent years, we are still facing severe challenges," said Zheng Xinjian with the SPP.

From January 2018 to September 2019, procuratorial organs nationwide approved the arrest of 8,401 people and prosecuted 20,513 for producing and selling fake or substandard medicine, as well as toxic, harmful and substandard food, Zheng said.