With the Spring Festival approaching, Hangzhou has released a food safety index in a bid to ensure consumers of safe food products.

The index, which was jointly released by the China National Quality Supervision and Test Center for Processed Aquatic Products, Hangzhou Life Quality Survey Center, and China Jiliang University, covers six major categories of food products that are popular during the Spring Festival and three categories of food products that were of much concern for consumers in the previous month. It shows that food in Hangzhou in January and February is safe.

The six kinds of New Year food are meat, edible oil and fat products, fried food and nut products, egg products, grain products, starch and starchy products. The safety index for the six is 98.98, 99, 98.71, 99, 98.76, and 99, respectively.

The evaluation system of Hangzhou's Food Safety Index consists of several procedures - random sampling of food, professional testing, marketing surveys, index calculation and publication. Publishing the food safety index is a new measure taken by the municipal government to improve the quality life of the local people.

By Li Hui

Editor: Lucy