At the close of 2012, the city of Bejing passed a new law that will ban vendors who produce or sell unsafe food from the municipality. The regulation was passed December 26 by the Standing Committee of the 13th Beijing Municipal People’s Congress, and will go into effect April 1, 2013, according to Xinhua. This decision came a day after a senior official in Shanghai announced that that city was considering blacklisting firms that acted illegally in producing foods. Shen Xiaoming, vice mayor of Shaghai, announced that 11 forms of misconduct, including the use of inedible substances in food, illegally manufacturing or selling food additives and recycling food as raw material, would be included under the proposed law. Executives at these companies would be banned from operating in Shanghai, and violators would face harsh punishments, reported Xinhua. This regulation is expected to be enacted in 2013. Under Beijing’s new food safety law, firms and owners found to be selling food prepared illegally will be banned from the industry for five years. One prevalent concern in China is the use of cooking oil made by reprocessing used oil, a substance that’s been dubbed “gutter oil.” Both new laws will ban the use of repurposed oils for cooking.