BEIJING — A top health official called for more integration within China's fractured food regulatory system Friday to boost its troubled safety record, while the military warned that unsafe food could undermine its combat readiness.

Vice Health Minister Wang Longde said new laws were needed to strengthen food safety supervision by coordinating the duties of competing government agencies.

"The food issue involves cooperation among many departments. This is very important," Wang said on the sidelines of a news conference in a rare high-level comment on China's attempts to regain consumer confidence.

The lack of a centrally controlled regulatory system is considered a key defect underpinning China's perennial food and drug safety woes. Those problems are now drawing international concern as a growing number of Chinese exports are found tainted with dangerous levels of toxins and chemicals.

Responsibility is now split among at least six agencies, including the State Food and Drug Administration, the Health Ministry, the Agriculture Ministry, the Commerce Ministry, the State Administration of Industry and Commerce, and the General Administration of Quality Supervision Inspection and Quarantine.

Wang's comments came the same day an official newspaper reported that the People's Liberation Army — the world's largest military — has ordered improved safety checks and will buy food only from suppliers who pass local government hygiene and safety tests.