GUANGZHOU: Authorities in Guangdong province should set up a food safety center, which should be responsible for supervising food production in the region, an official said yesterday.

"Incidents of contaminated food that have come to light in the past few years are a clear sign that it is high time we improved the mechanism for food safety supervision," Huang Rongbiao, a member of the provincial committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, said.

"As one of the nation's key centers of food production and export, Guangdong should take the lead to ensure flawless supervision of food safety," he said at the ongoing session of the provincial political consultative conference, which opened last Wednesday.