From this year, China's quality control authorities have begun issuing licenses for plastic products used for food packaging.

The Quality Safety - or QS system - encourages the public to purchase and use safe plastic packaging for food.

In both urban and rural areas, a large number of retailers have enhanced supervision of this aspect of the food supply chain.

Wang Hong, a senior official with China's product quality watchdog, said that currently across the country, more and more producers are making efforts to obtain these qualifications.

Government regulations insist that all such companies must be licensed with a QS sign by the end of this year.

Meanwhile consumers are being encouraged to be alert when buying food products, to ensure that packaging is up to the required quality standards.