China expands food safety standards with focus on risk control

China has released 1,750 national food safety standards covering more than 340 food categories, a health official said on Monday.

Gong Guoqiang, deputy director of the department of food safety standards, risk surveillance and assessment at the National Health Commission, said the standards include more than 20,000 indicators covering the entire process from food production to transportation and storage.

"The standard system accommodates the dietary characteristics of Chinese people while staying consistent with common international practices," he said at a news conference.

Last year, 126 new standards were released, focusing on the quality of raw materials, manufacturing processes and risk control of final products.

For example, a newly revised standard for canned fish has tightened limits on histamine in canned sardines, tuna and other canned products with high histamine content in line with the latest risk assessments by international organizations, Gong said.