Feb. 28 (Bloomberg) -- China’s top legislative body passed the country’s first food-safety law, establishing a cabinet-level commission to direct regulations after a series of scandals undermined consumer confidence.

The National People’s Congress Standing Committee adopted the food safety law today after reviewing four drafts and considering 10,000 public comments, said Xin Chunying, deputy director of legislative affairs for the standing committee.

The law reflects efforts by the Chinese government to reassure domestic consumers and international importers that its food and products are safe after a series of scandals, including chemical tainted milk that sickened 300,000 children last year. The law is meant to cut down on regulatory overlaps and conflict and boost the legal liability of producers, according to Xin.

“There is a clear need to develop unified national standards for food safety,” Xin told reporters, according to an online transcript of a press conference in Beijing. “Rationalization of the regulatory system is one of the most important missions of the food safety law.”

The law increases criminal and civil penalties for violations by food producers and managers, Xin said. She said in cases where the management clearly knows that the company is selling food that doesn’t meet standards, the company will have to compensate consumer 10 times the price of the product.

China has about 500,000 food makers, including 2,600 large companies that account for about 72 percent of the market, according to Xin. The law tightens record-keeping requirements in order to improve regulators’ ability to identify responsibility for problems, she said.

Milk formula tainted with melamine, a chemical used to produce plastics, killed at least six children in China last year and sickened hundreds of thousands. China has responded by sentencing two dairy executives to death and organizing compensation for families of injured children.

To contact the reporter on this story: Dune Lawrence in Beijing at dlawrence6@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: February 27, 2009 23:24 EST