The government will launch a nationwide campaign later this
month to improve food safety and to better protect children and
teenagers from health hazards, spokesman for the campaign's leading
group Cheng Zhigang said yesterday.
Initiated by China Soong Ching Ling Foundation in August, the
campaign was launched jointly by 11 government departments,
including the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC),
the ministries of Education, Agriculture, Commerce and Health, and
the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and
Quarantine (AQSIQ).
"Its goal is to spread (the message of) food safety and
nutrition knowledge among children and their parents, help
youngsters acquire healthy dietary habits and regulate the domestic
food market", Cheng said.
Campaign organizers will adopt tangible measures, including
setting up a special fund for children's food safety, formulating
national standards for food quality catering for children and
supervising food quality in groceries and supermarkets in rural
areas.
According to official figures, the country has more than 400
million children under the age of 18.
Several leading domestic food and beverage firms, too, have been
involved in this endeavor, and they include the country's leading
fruit juice maker Huiyuan Group, which became the campaign's first
strategic partner.
"The reason why our company began making the country's first
series of tailor-made nutritious juice products for children after
15 years of manufacturing experience is because we regard food
quality as the top priority," Huiyuan Chairman Zhu Xinli said.
"The world's most advanced sterilized cold filling technique is
used in the manufacturing process, and all the packaging materials
are environment-friendly materials," project manager of the juice
custom-made for children Li Ying said.
Chinese industries have featured in numerous reports on
substandard products, especially food, in recent months. "The
country's future are our children and food and beverage companies
should provide them with healthy and nutritious food," said Zhu,
who is also a member of the campaign's expert panel.
Responding to the reported scandals, the Chinese government
introduced a new recall system in summer, and began a four-month
nationwide product quality campaign that ends this month. Also, it
implemented measure that makes it mandatory for all food exports to
carry inspection and quarantine seals.
Vice-Premier Wu Yi called on the country's quality watchdogs on
November 30 to beef up quality checks of food before the Christmas
and New Year holidays.
(Xinhua News Agency December 10, 2007)