Strawberries put food safety in spotlight again

A RECENT China Central Television investigation found strawberries bought at random from eight Beijing retailers contained two pesticide residues in a lab test. Residues of Acetochlor, which is not even registered in China's national standards for food residues, were fairly high. Comments:

A new set of internationally compatible food safety standards is more than necessary. On the one hand, such standards would serve as the country's guarantee of high food quality; on the other, China as a vast agricultural country needs to meet higher requirements to make its food industry more globally competitive. When it comes to food and medicine safety, China should adopt even stricter managerial rules than developed economies do.

Wu Jun, a guest commentator with scol.com.cn, April 27