China is likely to set up a single watchdog for food safety and drugs, Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported on Monday.

The move will streamline a complex regulatory system that has been involved in a series of scandals over food contamination and fake medicines.

The new body is scheduled to be approved at the annual session of the country’s legislature, the National People's Congress, which begins on Tuesday, and will replace a system comprising up to 13 government agencies, the paper said.

The paper quoted an unnamed source as saying that the plan for a single regulator was subject to last-minute changes and might end up focusing on food safety only.

The paper said China's State Food and Drug Administration is mainly responsible for policies and programs on the administration of drugs, health food, medical devices and cosmetics. And the Health Ministry mainly handles food safety and other agencies looking after packaging and animal health, the paper said.

The SFDA was founded in 2003 as a ministerial-level agency directly under the State Council, but was downgraded and affiliated to the Ministry of Health in 2008 after a series of corruption scandals involving several SFDA officials, it added.