China is to launch a nationwide campaign on improving food
safety in mid-December to better protect its children and
teenagers, Cheng Zhigang, a spokesman with the campaign leading
group, said here on Sunday.
Initiated by China Soong Ching Ling Foundation last August, the
campaign was jointly launched by 11 government departments
including the National Development and Reform Commission,
ministries of education, agriculture, commerce and health and the
General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and
Quarantine.
"Its goal is to spread food safety and nutrition knowledge to
children and their parents, help youngsters have healthy dietary
habits and regulate domestic food market", said Cheng.
During the campaign, the organizer will adopt tangible measures
including establishing 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.
Official figures show that China has more than 400 million
children and teenagers under the age of 18.
Several leading domestic food and beverage enterprises have also
been involved in this endeavor including the country's leading
fruit juice maker Huiyuan Group, the first strategic partner of the
campaign.
"The reason why our company began to put out the country's first
series of tailor-made nutritious juice products for children at
present after collecting 15 years of manufacturing experience is
that we regard food quality as the top priority," Zhu Xinli,
Chairman of Huiyuan, told Xinhua at Friday's new product launch
ceremony.
"The world's most advanced PET sterilized cold filling technique
is employed in the manufacturing process and all the packaging
materials are safe environment-friendly materials," said Li Ying,
project manager of the children-customized juice products.
In recent months, Chinese industries have been the focus of
numerous reports about substandard products, especially food. The
scandals have included vegetables containing pesticide residue,
fish contaminated with suspected carcinogens and eggs tainted with
the industrial dye Sudan Red.
"The future of our nation lies in children's hands and food and
beverage companies should provide them with healthy and nutritious
food," said Zhu Xinli, also a member of the campaign's expert
panel.
In response to the reported scandals, the Chinese government
introduced a new recall system last summer, began a four-month
nationwide product quality campaign ending in December and issued a
measure that requires labeling of all food exports with an
inspection and quarantine symbol.
Official statistics revealed that, 626 criminal cases
involving774 suspects had been filed over substandard food and drug
products by early November.
Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi on Nov. 30 called on the country's
quality watchdogs to beef up quality checks of food ahead of the
coming Christmas and New Year holidays.
(Xinhua News Agency December 10, 2007)