The former head of China's food and drug watchdog was executed today for approving untested medicine in exchange for cash, as the country's product safety crisis spread to Europe.

The execution of Zheng Xiaoyu was confirmed by state television and the official Xinhua news agency.

During Zheng's tenure from 1998 to 2005, the State Food and Drug Administration approved six medicines that turned out to be fake, and the drug makers used falsified documents to apply for approvals, according to previous state media reports.

One antibiotic caused the deaths of at least 10 people.

"The few corrupt officials of the SFDA are the shame of the whole system and their scandals have revealed some very serious problems," an agency spokeswoman, Yan Jiangying, said at a news conference held to highlight efforts to improve China's track record on food and drug safety.

The world's biggest exporter is facing a global crisis of confidence as scandals grow over the quality of many of its goods.

The European Commission yesterday confirmed that thousands of tubes of potentially toxic toothpaste imported from China had been seized in Spain and Italy.

The tubes were of a type normally handed out in hospitals, hotels and aeroplanes and are thought to contain diethylene glycol, a thickening agent in antifreeze.

"This is an unacceptable risk," Helen Kearns, spokeswoman for the EU consumer affairs commissioner, Meglena Kuneva, told the International Herald Tribune.

More than 120,000 tubes have been seized in the two countries, including some suspected counterfeits of well-known brands.

Spanish authorities said the goods were probably tainted by the same chemical that contaminated medicine in Panama last year, causing dozens of deaths. No one in Europe is known to have been harmed.

Last week, China's food safety watchdog acknowledged that almost a fifth of the domestic products it inspects failed to reach minimum standards.

In June, the government published its first five-year plan for improving food and drug safety. It closed 180 food factories in the first half of this year and seized tonnes of sweets, pickles, crackers and seafood tainted with formaldehyde, illegal dyes and industrial wax.

But the Chinese authorities also stand accused of reacting slowly.

The execution of Zheng is seen as an attempt by the Chinese authorities to show they are tackling the problem.

Zheng was convicted of taking cash and gifts worth 6.49m yuan (£425,000) when he was in charge of the SFDA.

Ms Yan said the agency was working to tighten its safety procedures and to create a more transparent operating environment.

She acknowledged that the agency's supervision of food and drug safety remained unsatisfactory and that it had been slow to tackle the problem.

Chinese officials have already said the country faces social unrest and a further tarnished image abroad unless it improves the quality and safety of its food and medicine.

In North America earlier this year, pet food containing Chinese wheat gluten tainted with the chemical melamine was blamed for the deaths of dogs and cats.

Since then, US authorities have turned away or recalled toxic fish, juice containing unsafe colour additives, and popular toy trains decorated with lead paint.




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