China banned diethylene glycol — a thickening agent in antifreeze — from use in toothpaste Wednesday, one of its most significant concessions yet as it struggles to regain international confidence in the country’s beleaguered exports.

Diethylene glycol is used as a low-cost substitute for glycerin, a sweetener commonly found in drugs, food, toothpaste and other products. Although there have been no reports of health problems stemming from the toothpaste, dozens of people in Panama died last year after taking medicine contaminated with the chemical imported from China. It was passed off as harmless glycerin.

While China has never had guidelines banning diethylene glycol, or DEG, in toothpaste, the statement said the vast majority of Chinese toothpaste manufacturers have already stopped using it in order to reassure consumers and “to avoid unnecessary losses incurred by exporting manufacturers.”

But, it said, the ban also extends to imported products and reiterated China’s official stance that diethylene glycol in small quantities is safe, based on tests carried out by Chinese health experts in 2000.

The announcement is the latest in a string of moves by China to clarify murky regulations, tighten enforcement and clean up graft — factors underpinning its poor food safety record — as it fights to prove it is not a danger to the global supply chain.

In recent weeks, importers of Chinese goods, especially the United States, have grown extremely wary as the list of products tainted with deadly toxins and dangerously high levels of chemicals grows daily, from frozen fish to juice to toys.

Also Wednesday, the government ordered small, loosely regulated food producers to clean up their act and announced stricter rules for approving new drugs, a day after the former head of its food and drug agency was executed for accepting bribes in exchange for letting fake medicine into the domestic market.

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