SHANGHAI, Oct. 19 -- SMALL restaurants and food factories are the new targets as city health authorities continue their crackdown on food hygiene.

Answering the call by the State Council for increased inspections for food hygiene, the local authorities began the crackdown in August and will maintain it until the end of the year.

Jiao Yang, the city government spokeswoman, said in a government news release yesterday that the crackdown was expected to radically improve the food supplies. Local authorities have already seized substandard or unregistered products and either destroyed them or had them returned to the suppliers.

Jiao said that the factories and wholesale markets for agricultural food are now under close supervision.