China, recently in the media spotlight for food safety issues,
was put well on track to better food safety, as the country went
all out to ensure safety of its food products and restore consumer
confidence home and abroad.
The country's efforts to this end seem to have accelerated last
month.
It issued the first white paper on food safety on Aug. 17 and
put Vice Premier Wu Yi to head a high-profile panel on product
quality and safety issues, followed by a string of efforts made by
various government organs in the recent month to crack down on food
safety issue.
On Aug. 31, the quality watchdog officially introduced the
nation's landmark recall systems for unsafe food products and toys
amid efforts to improve product safety, charging producers with
prior and major responsibilities for preventing and eliminating
unsafe food and toys.
Food safety became a rising concern among Chinese citizens after
a series of food contamination accidents occurred across the
country in recent months.
Last November, the country's food safety watchdog found that
seven companies were producing red-yolk eggs contaminated with
dangerous red Sudan dyes, supposed to be used in the leather and
fabric industries, but banned for food use.
In the same month, Shanghai police arrested three people who
were adding three to four grams of banned steroid drug to each ton
of pig feed to increase lean meat. The steroids, which prevent pigs
from accumulating fat, are poisonous to humans. More than 300
people fell ill after eating the meat.
Also last year, carcinogenic residues were detected in turbot
sold on markets in Beijing and Shanghai.
Even international fast food giant KFC was accused of adding
cancer-causing Sudan 1 to its roast chicken wings.
Statistics from the Ministry of Health show that in the first
half of this year, China reported 134 food poisoning cases, which
poisoned 4,457 people and killed 96.
Food is China's biggest industry with the 2006 output estimated
at 2.4 trillion yuan (US$315.8 billion), according to the China
National Food Industry Association, and eating is vitally important
for Chinese people.
Meanwhile, there were bitter stories when people fell victim to
food safety threats.
In June of 2006, more than 130 people contracted parasitic
disease after eating undercooked snails in a restaurant. Yang and
his family, including his parents, his wife and his 18-month
daughter were among them.
The Beijing Health Bureau said the infection was caused by
undercooking in the restaurant, which failed to eradicate eel worms
on the snails.
Although he survived the deadly disease, Yang still suffers
aches and pains in his lower body and stomach and now regards food,
once a great pleasure, as a potential threat.
In overseas market, a growing list of substandard exports from
China since March, ranging from pet foods to drugs, toothpastes,
toys, aquatic products and tyres, has sparked wide concern about
"Made in China" labels.
Medicine contaminated with diethylene glycol imported from China
was blamed for the dozens of deaths in Panama, and deaths of dogs
and cats in North America were attributed to tainted Chinese wheat
gluten.
When it comes to public food safety, ordinary Chinese are not
well- informed, and have to rely on government administrations.
Jing Luyan, 24, who works in a Beijing-based travel agency, said
she trusts the government and the media for information on food
safety issues.
"If they say I shouldn't eat something, then I stop immediately,
simple as that," she said, adding many of her colleagues and
friends do the same.
Pressure from home and abroad first prompted the Chinese
government to acknowledge that the country's food and drug safety
situation is unsatisfactory and enhanced supervision is needed.
At a press conference held in July, China's food and drug
watchdog spokeswoman Yan Jiangying said "As a developing country,
China's food and drug supervision work began late and its
foundations are weak. Therefore, the food and drug safety situation
is not something we can be optimistic about".
The press conference was jointly held by five major ministries
in charge of food safety, namely the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA),
the Ministry of Health (MOH), the State Administration for Industry
and Commerce (SAIC), the General Administration of Quality
Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ), and the State Food
and Drug Administration (SFDA).
It was a rare attempt made by the Chinese government to
seriously address the issue, and a series of measures to be taken
were enumerated at the conference.
However, it failed to offer a convincing mechanism for
coordinating work among the five ministries, leaving the murky
regulation of food safety unresolved.
There have been worries about China's supervision over food
safety, as at least five ministries were put in charge of food
safety issues and coordination among them was no easy job.
Vice Health Minister Wang Longde said earlier new laws were
needed to strengthen food safety supervision by coordinating the
duties of relevant government agencies.
Yet, the Chinese government stepped up its efforts since then,
to address the issue amid far-flung concern over China's food
safety home and abroad.
China's first-ever 39-page white paper published recently sets
forth a series of achievements along with planned measures to
improve food quality, from establishing a national food recall
system to increasing exchanges with quality officials from other
countries.
Vice Premier Wu Yi's panel, meant to address the country's
problems in food safety and product quality, partly dispelled
people's concerns over a loose supervision on food safety due to
too many regulators.
Analysts believed that the newly established panel led by Wu Yi
would improve the efficiency of supervision.
The government also started a four-month nationwide campaign to
improve the quality of goods and food safety. Vice Premier Wu Yi
described the campaign as a "special battle" to ensure public
health and interests and uphold the reputation of Chinese
products.
The campaign will target farm produce, processed food, the
catering sector, drugs, pork, imported and exported goods and
products closely linked to human safety and health.
Luo Yunbo, dean of the food science and nutritional engineering
school of China Agricultural University, said the white paper
offers authoritative information on food safety in China, and the
latest moves underscored the government's determination to improve
product quality after a spate of safety accidents.
The paper also said the proportion of Chinese food products that
passed quality inspections had risen steadily in recent years, up
from 77.9 percent last year to current figure of 85.1 percent.
As for small food processors, which are believed to be a major
food safety threat in China, the paper said the country would make
small-scale producers to unite into large ones while keeping a
closer eye on safety accidents.
Almost 80 percent of China's food producers are small workshops
employing fewer than 10 workers, however, they produced less than
10 percent of the goods on the market, according to the paper.
By the end of June, the government has weeded out 5,631
unqualified small producers, forced 8,814 producers to stop
production, and asked 5,385 companies to improve their production,
the paper said.
The number of small food producers would drop by 50 percent by
2010, said the quality supervision administration after the country
published its first-ever five-year plan on food safety in May, and
the government wants to ensure that by 2012 no uncertified
producers remain.
China is also seriously addressing overseas concerns over
Chinese food exports. It has shut down the factory linked to dozens
of deaths in Panama from tainted medicine, and two companies that
exported tainted wheat and corn protein which end up in pet food in
the United States and led to a number of dog and cat deaths in
North America.
The country's top quality watchdog has announced that all major
food exports produced from Sept. 1 onwards must carry labels to
show they have passed inspection so as to halt illegal exports and
bolster consumer confidence in the quality and safety of Chinese
foods.
The white paper reveals that the acceptance rate of Chinese
foodstuffs exported to the EU stood at 99.8 percent in the first
half, followed by those exported to the United States, with the
acceptance rate of 99.1 percent.
Japanese quarantine authorities found Chinese food exports had
the highest acceptance rate at 99.42 percent, followed by the EU
(99.38 percent) and the United States. (98.69 percent).
However, a better food safety record will not come overnight,
and people seem differed on what they should do as individuals.
Jing Luyan is fond of tasting different flavors of food,
especially traditional Beijing snack food. However, traditional
snacks are usually cooked in shabby restaurants in small
alleys.
"I believe that the most delicious food can hardly ever be found
in swanky establishments with irreproachable hygiene conditions,"
Jing said, adding that she never fell ill after eating food from
street corner stalls.
Yang Fangfang, who has worked in foreign countries, including
the United States, France, South Africa and Fiji, for several
years, said the most important thing is to help citizens develop a
sense of food safety.
Yang and his family have become much more cautious about food
safety after the accident. "We carefully choose food for ourselves
and our children, and will definitely teach them about the
importance of food safety," he said.
"I believe the government supervision system will work in the
long run, but right now people have no option but to learn to
protect themselves," Yang said.
(Xinhua News Agency September 16, 2007)