BEIJING - China Food and Drug Administration announced on Tuesday that a credit rating system will be introduced into the food and drug industries.

The authorities plan to collect information about credit standing of food and drug producers and sellers to prepare a data bank by the end of 2016, according to a guideline released by the administration.

The database which contains safety credit ratings of food and drug producers and sellers will be worked out by the end of 2020, the document said.

All enterprises in the food and drug industries will be rated as A, B, C or D, respectively, in accordance with a national standard. The rating of C refers to lack of credit worthiness while D means an acute shortage of credit worthiness.

According to the guideline, food and drug businesses with bad credit ratings will be harshly punished and such information about their credit standing will be made public in time.