Food quality and safety in China has been much improved as the
country completes the establishment of market access systems for
food products.
By the end of the year, China will have completed the market
access systems for a total of 525 kinds of food products in 28
categories, according to the annual conference of the General
Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine
yesterday.
The establishment of the systems started in 2002 with five
categories grain, salt, sauce, vinegar and edible oil. It was
followed by 10 categories consisting mainly of meat and dairy
products, and 13 categories consisting of tea, wine, and egg
products.
To date, more than 80,000 food enterprises have acquired market
access permit certificates. Next year the administration will
further set up access systems for cosmetics and food-related
products such as packaging and cooking utensils.
"With the completion of the systems, the quality of food
products in China has been much improved, and food processing
industries have been effectively regulated," Li said.
The administration cancels the production qualifications of
between 10 and 20 enterprises every month for various quality
defects.
In another development, an archives record system for additives
applied by food processing enterprises, will be put into effect
early next year.
"Enterprises will have to make it public what additives they are
using and what they are not," according to Wu Jianping, director of
food production and supervision of the administration.
"The archives will upgrade food production safety from the
source," he said.
This year, China has been confronted with food safety problems,
especially in areas of poisonous additives. Recent cases include
carcinogenic mandarin and turbot fish, and ducks and hens that were
fed cancer-causing Sudan Red dye to make their yolks red.
"Another importance of the archives system is that it will be
able to differentiate between guilty and innocent food producers,"
Wu said. "Such a record system will at least salvage the innocent
ones."
Food safety supervision is especially difficult in the Chinese
mainland due to the fact there are more than 350,000 small food
processing outlets with less than 10 staff each.
With backward facilities and poorly educated staff, the outlets
usually fail to reach the required quality standards, and has
increased supervision difficulty, Li said.
In northern Shaanxi Province, local governments have sent food
quality supervision cadres to patrol streets in the urban and rural
areas.
"Only through regionalizing and strengthening supervision
responsibilities can we solve these issues," Wu said.
China has also made remarkable achievements in improving the
quality of food products for export.
Statistics show that Chinese enterprises made a 20 percent
increase year-on-year in food exports at the end of last month.
(China Daily December 19, 2006)