BEIJING -- The top legislature said Thursday that China's food safety situation remained "severe," and called for better supervision and food safety standards.

Dirty food processing environments, fraud and adulteration in food production, and irregularities in transportation had been uncovered, said Zhang Dejiang, chairman of National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, when delivering a report to lawmakers on the inspection of the implementation of the Food Safety Law.

The country has over 11.85 million food businesses with licenses, according to Zhang.

The report was made after the NPC Standing Committee finished a nationwide inspection of the enforcement of the law in April and May.

Led by Zhang and four vice chairpersons of the NPC Standing Committee, five inspection groups went to 10 provincial regions including Tianjin, Inner Mongolia, Fujian, Hubei, Guangxi, and Chongqing. They visited breeding centers, markets for farm produce, food producers, catering businesses and other units.

Inspectors found that some food producers lack a strong sense of responsibility. A few of them wanted nothing but profits.

In the planting phase, pesticides and chemical fertilizers are not being used appropriately, said Zhang.

In addition, although almost 683 food safety standards and over 4,000 limits to pesticide levels have been issued, food safety standard supervision in some areas is weak, said Zhang.