China's Ministry of Education and the State Food and Drug Administration have jointly launched an eight-month campaign to ensure food safety in school dining halls.

The campaign will run from May to December and focus on food services certification, sanitation, workers' health, dish washing, food processing and food additives, according to a statement released Wednesday.

Local schools have been ordered to check food-safety conditions in their dining halls and remedy any defects, to improve food standards and ensure the health of students, the statement said.

In April, a milk company suspended production after its milk was blamed for the vomiting and stomachaches of about 200 middle and primary school students in northwest China's Shaanxi Province.

An investigation showed filling machines' valve shafts at the company's operations had corroded. The fault prevented the machines from completely sealing the dairy packages, which allowed the milk to go bad quickly.

(Xinhua News Agency May 13, 2010)