The National Health and Family Planning Commission has revealed its intention to clean up and consolidate nearly 5,000 food safety standards and formulate or revise 300 national standards.

This is a timely step to regulate China's food industry, given that food safety has become a huge concern after a number of high-profile scandals and tragedies in recent years.

The existence of assorted, different and even conflicting food safety standards among different departments, regions and fields complicates the management and supervision of food production.