China today executed the former head of its food and drug watchdog agency, who had become a symbol of the country’s wide-ranging problems on product safety. Zheng Xiaoyu’s execution was confirmed by State Food and Drug Administration spokeswoman Yan Jianyang at a news conference held to highlight efforts to improve China’s track record on food and drug safety. Zheng was sentenced to death in May for taking bribes to approve an antibiotic blamed for at least 10 deaths and other substandard medicines.
Now that is talking food safety serious.