Chinese police wrapped up more than 52,000 criminal food safety cases and 28,000 fake medicine cases in the past three years, deputy police chief Huang Ming said Thursday.

The ministry also closed a large number of underground workshops and factories manufacturing "poisonous and harmful" food and medicine, Huang said. "An array" of criminals were punished.

This kind of crime is still widespread in China due to weak law enforcement by some local police authorities.

Huang promised that his ministry would continue to work with criminal justice departments on food and pharmaceutical crime.