China Starts Recall System for Food, Toys

BEIJING — China's first nationwide recall system for unsafe food and toys came into effect Friday in one of the strongest steps taken by Beijing to clean up the country's scandal-hit manufacturing industry.

China, a major global supplier, has been facing growing international pressure to improve the quality of its exports after dangerous toxins — from lead to an antifreeze ingredient — were found in goods, including toys and toothpaste.

At home, scares have centered on fake milk powder that led to the deaths of at least a dozen babies and the use of the banned cancer-causing industrial dye, Sudan Red, to color egg yolks.

The recall systems, put in place by the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, follow an earlier system set up for defective cars in 2005.

They require manufacturers to stop production and sales, notify vendors and customers, and report to quality control authorities when defects are found.

The administration oversees all products made in China and the measure appears to be targeted at goods manufactured for both domestic and global consumption.

Read the full Associated Press story here.