China has announced a five-year offensive to try to restore confidence in its products at home and abroad after a string of scandals involving tainted foods and dangerous medicines.

It is believed that the action may have been prompted in part as a reaction to the deaths of at least 100 people in Panama that officials blamed on a toxic drug ingredient — diethylene glycol — in Chinese cough syrup.

A document issued by the State Council, or cabinet, said: “Ensuring food and pharmaceutical safety for the public must be the starting point and destination of all work.”

China has promised nationwide monitoring of adverse reactions to drugs, special inspections to cover 90 per cent of food production businesses and strict controls to stop farmers and producers from overusing pesticides and additives.

However, the authorities face a huge challenge to try to bring into line thousands of small factories nationwide that can easily evade checks either through bribes, deceit or faking their paperwork.

Unregulated capitalism, coupled with corruption and the lack of an independent media, make it difficult to enforce effective measures.

The plan also calls for inspections in farmlands, factories and ports to stop toxic products reaching consumers. It calls for the establishment of an emergency response system to disasters involving food or drug poisoning and for farm product safety systems to be expanded to all major cities from just 37 at present.

Exports, and China’s international reputation, appear to be at the heart of the policy.

Li Changjiang, the Minister of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine that oversees exports, said: “Food safety work isn’t just a law enforcement and vigilance issue. It involves the national image, it involves bilateral and even multilateral political relations.”

The issue first made international headlines earlier this year when pet food contaminated with the chemical melamine resulted in the deaths of cats and dogs in the United States and led to one of the biggest pet food recalls in US history.

The scandal has continued to widen. Singapore on Wednesday became the latest nation to ban some toothpaste brands from China after finding traces of diethylene glycol.

The European Commission said that officials were investigating reports from Greece and Poland of melamine taint in corn gluten and rice protein imported from China.

One shipment was rejected and the feed was withdrawn.

The State Council said that the policy would include drugs and that checks must be made of “every single injection, every single pill”.

Chinese consumers, too, have little confidence in the quality of food and drugs available. Many people still remember the country’s most notorious case, revealed in 2004, when baby milk powder lacking sufficient nutritional value caused the deaths of at least 13 infants in central Anhui province.

Acknowledging the scale of corruption, the plan notes that society could play a bigger role in supervising food and drug safety.

Industry groups and the media could be more open to discontent among the public, as long as it was within the law and officials would be held responsible.

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