BEIJING, CHINA - In response to last week's seizure of more than 60 tons of contaminated milk powder, Chinese government officials promised earlier this week to improve the country's regulation of food products, CNN reports.

Authorities spoke at China's Ministry of Health, trying to reassure citizens shaken by details of the tainted milk. Two years ago, six babies died and hundreds of thousands of children fell ill after consuming melamine-tainted milk. Twenty-one people were convicted of tampering with the milk production process, and two were executed.

"China attaches great importance to food safety, particularly dairy quality and safety," Deputy Secretary for Health Supervision Chen Rui said. "The ministry will continue to organize the national dairy safety standards to track evaluations, listen to the food production companies and consumer opinion and constantly revise and improve the national dairy safety standards."

A large batch of contaminated milk powder was discovered last week in Gansu province and traced to a factory in neighboring Qinghai province. Investigations are ongoing, and officials said that more uniform regulations across China are needed to maintain the safety of dairy products.

"We have hundreds of thousands of monitoring bodies right now and we need to standardize our rules," said Wang Zhutian, deputy director of the National Institute of Nutrition and Food Safety at the China Center for Disease Control. "Businesses are, of course, the first parties who are responsible for any quality issues. However, we also need to establish a universal regulation. China's development isn't at that level at this time, but we hope to unify our processes as quickly as possible."