Guo Lei/ Shanghai Daily news

Food safety supervisors in the city expect to begin using on-the-spot testing methods to check the quality of meat and vegetables sold in local markets by the end of this year, the Shanghai Food and Drug Administrative Bureau announced yesterday, Shanghai Daily reported.

While the testing methods have already proven successful, they have yet to be approved as legally reliable. The methods allow a series of tests to be completed in under 30 minutes. "For example, it only takes one or two minutes to test for pesticides on vegetables with portable equipment," said FDA official Peng Shaojie.