Supervising for shoppers' safety
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| A shopping guide promotes food safety in a supermarket in Xiamen in East China’s Fujian Province. Mo Feng |
6. Stepping up Supervision of the Food Circulation Sector
The "Three Green Projects" have been vigorously promoted in China, advocating "green consumption, green markets and green channels." The government encourages modern modes of organization and management for circulation, positively supports the development of chain management and logistics provision; urges marketing enterprises to examine materials before accepting them, check business licenses, require invoices for purchases, keep accounts of transactions and honor their undertakings for food quality, as well as promotes market managers' food quality responsibility system; implements market inspection system in an all-around way; improves the food quality monitoring system, and strictly implements the system that substandard food must be withdrawn from the market and destroyed and made known to the public; strengthens administration over butchering of livestock and fowls, breaks down regional barriers and encourages the nationwide circulation of high-quality foodstuffs with good credit standing and prestigious brand names; improves food processing, circulation and service systems in communities; strengthens the management of the use of genuine food safety labels and standard packaging, and concentrates efforts to crack down on printing of fake packaging, labels and trademarks.
7. Intensifying Supervision of Food Safety in Catering Industry
Hygiene in the catering industry is vital for food safety. In this regard, the Chinese government has primarily done the following: One, it has intensified supervision on hygiene in the catering industry, promulgated and put into effect the Hygienic Standards for the Catering Industry and Group Food Service Providers, adopted a quantified and classified supervisory system for food hygiene management, and strengthened supervision on each link of the catering industry. Two, it has urged the catering industry and canteens to implement the quantified and classified supervisory system for food hygiene management in an all-around way, improved and strengthened monitoring of food contamination and building of a monitoring system on diseases caused by contaminated food. Three, it has intensified crackdown on activities in violation of food safety law, investigated and dealt with serious cases and timely made them known to the public. In 2006, the health departments inspected 2.04 million catering entities of various types and school canteens, dealt with 45,000 cases of illegal food processing and sale and closed down 25,000 food processors and sellers that had been operating without hygiene permits. Four, it has strengthened efforts on hygienic work in schools, directed and carried out special inspections on food and drinking water hygiene, and prevention and treatment of contagious diseases in schools all over the country, as well as prevention of food poisoning and the spread of communicable intestinal diseases. Five, it has conducted food-related jeopardy assessment and issued early warnings for food safety problems on a scientific basis and provided food assessment information.
8. Carrying out Rectification in Respect of Food Quality and Safety in an All-around Way
In order to crack down on the spread of counterfeit and shoddy foodstuffs in certain regions, special comprehensive rectification campaigns were launched in these regions for food quality and safety. The Chinese government has conducted a special project involving hundreds of regions, thousands of townships and tens of thousands of food producers and processors. Targeting key regions, food processing venues and households and their products, the project has resolved the regional problem of producing and selling fake and inferior goods by establishing a food safety monitoring network, stepping up efforts in building up the technological forces such as standardization and monitoring technology, improving technical services for enterprises, promoting the setting up of food industry associations, and intensifying law enforcement and making more stringent efforts to crack down on the production and sale of counterfeit and faulty food. Meanwhile, the departments of industry and commerce as well as quality supervision and inspection keep intensifying law enforcement and, with focus on food quality and safety, direct and conduct special law enforcement actions against activities in producing and processing counterfeit food-related items at the source, strictly crack down on illegal activities such as production of food with non-food materials and misuse of additives in food, as well as food producers with neither a business license nor food-processing permit. In 2006, the quality supervision and inspection departments handled 49,000 illegal operations in this field, confiscating counterfeit and shoddy foodstuffs worth 450 million yuan. In the same year, the departments of industry and commerce sent 5.6 million person/times for law enforcement and inspected 16,000 key food markets and 10.4 million food operating business/times, closed down 151,800 unlicensed businesses, revoked 4,629 business licenses, investigated and dealt with 68,000 cases of production and sale of counterfeit and shoddy food, of which 48 cases were referred to the relevant judicial organs, and ordered 15,500 tons of substandard foodstuffs off the market.
9. Beefing up the Construction of a Risk-warning and Emergency-response System
The Chinese government has established a nationwide quick risk warning and responding system in respect of food safety, actively conducted risk monitoring and control in food production, processing, circulation and consumption, and preliminarily realized the early discovery, early warning, early control and early treatment of food-safety problems through efficient collection and analysis of information on food safety. It has also established a rapid and efficient response mechanism covering the collection and analysis of risk-related information, issuing warnings and rapid responses so that it is possible to provide prompt reports, take swift action, make accurate judgment and mete out appropriate measures.
10. Establishing and Improving a Food Recall System
This system comprises two aspects: active recall and instructed recall. The system stipulates that it is the responsibility of food producing and processing enterprises to recall their products if necessary, requires that food producers should instantly put a halt to the production and selling of their products if they suspect any safety risk in their food products, and take the initiative to recall such food products. Producers who purposely conceal food hazards or do not perform their recall obligations, or whose faulty production has extended such hazards or made them recur, will be instructed to recall their products. In recent years, in conducting food sample surveys and law enforcement, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine has become more stringent in demanding food recall when major food-safety hazards, such as pathogenic bacteria, chemical pollutant or non-food materials, are found in food products. Toward those food producing enterprises causing serious consequences, the Administration has revoked their licenses, thus reducing hazards that might be caused by unsafe food and safeguarding the health and safety of consumers.
11. Improving the Food Safety Credit System
The Chinese government pays great attention to the construction of the credit system for food safety, and has set up the preliminary credit records for food-producing enterprises, as well as a system to publicize the honor rolls and blacklists of food producers and processors.
Meanwhile, the functions of chambers of commerce and trade associations have been brought into full play to promote self-discipline in the food industry. By giving backing to excellent and competent enterprises, the government supports and helps good and strong enterprises by legislative, administrative and economic means to create an honest environment for food safety, and to enhance people's awareness of honesty in this regard. It has made great efforts in gradual improvement of this mechanism for food safety, and given full scope to its role in regulating, guiding and supervising food safety. It has built up files of credit records of food safety and promoted classified credit monitoring in the food industry. Emphasis is laid on the establishment of a registration and information system and a classified database of credit records of food producers and sellers, which collects information on food producers' and sellers' market access, food-safety control, and consumers' complaints and reports, to ensure an effective control based on adequate information. In recent years, the latest network technology has been used for this purpose, so that consumers may timely, easily, quickly and effectively distinguish counterfeits from genuine ones, which greatly helps safeguard consumers'interests, discourages the production and sale of fake foodstuffs and promotes honesty among enterprises in this industry.
Over the years, the continuous growth of the food industry in terms of variety and quantity as well as the improvement of quality have helped satisfy the people's ever-increasing consumption demands, raised their living standard and promoted national economic development. However, the Chinese government is well aware that there are still problems with food safety, owing to the country's limited socio-economic development. In the days to come, penalties will be focused on those who produce shoddy products or products containing inferior materials or impurities, palm off counterfeits as genuine ones, process foodstuff with non-food or moldy materials, produce foodstuff in disregard of required standards and misuse additives in foodstuff, so as to continuously guarantee food safety and quality.
III. Supervision of Imported and Exported Food
1. Supervision of Imported Food
Exploration and practice over the years have enabled China to set up a complete framework of food quality and safety supervisory system and guarantee measures to ensure the safety of imported food.
- Scientific risk management system. According to the WTO Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) and common international practice, the Chinese government adopts an inspection and quarantine entry system based on risk management for high-risk imported food, such as meat and vegetable, which includes: making a risk analysis on the high-risk food that the exporting country applies to export to China; signing an inspection and quarantine agreement with the exporting country on food involving acceptable risks; carrying out hygiene registration for foreign food enterprises; and quarantining, examining and approving the imported food of animal and plant origin. If epidemic animal or plant diseases or severe food safety problems occur in the exporting country, China shall take timely risk management measures, including suspending food imports from that country.
- Strict inspection and quarantine system. When imported food arrives at the port of entry, the entry-exit inspection and quarantine authorities carry out inspection and quarantine in accordance with law, and approve the foodstuffs to be imported only if they meet the required standards; and the customs house clears the imported food upon the strength of the Customs Clearance List of Inward/Outward Goods as issued by the entry-exit inspection and quarantine authorities. Only then can the food be sold in the Chinese market. If safety or hygienic problems are found in the food when inspected and quarantined, corresponding measures are immediately taken. In 2006, Chinese entry-exit inspection and quarantine authorities altogether found 2,458 batches of foodstuffs not meeting the standards at ports of entry. In the first half of 2007, some 896 were found, which were returned, destroyed or used in other ways according to law. Thus is the safety of food imported for the Chinese market assured.
- Complete quality and safety supervisory system. While carrying out inspection and quarantine in accordance with law, the entry-exit inspection and quarantine authorities pay special attention to higher-risk food and problematic foodstuffs as found in the inspection and quarantine at the ports of entry. The authorities promptly issue early warnings of risks when finding imported food with serious problems or the same type of imported food with repeated problems, and take such measures as increasing the proportion of sample survey, adding more items for inspection, and suspending import.
- Strict system against illegal import. The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine and the General Administration of Customs have set up a cooperation mechanism to jointly fight illegal food imports. In 2006, China signed with the European Union Commission the Arrangement for Cooperation on Joint Prevention of Illegal Actions in the Import and Export of Food, making it clear that the two sides will crack down on such illegal activities as deception, undeclared carrying, illegal transit and smuggling through exchanges of information, technological cooperation, mutual visits of experts and special joint actions. In 2006 and the first half of 2007, 12,292 tons of illegally imported meat were seized.
2. Supervision of Exported Food
Following the principle of "prevention first, supervision at the source, and control throughout the process," the Chinese government has set up and improved an export-food safety management framework composed of "one pattern and ten systems."
"One pattern" refers to the managerial pattern for the production of export food -- "enterprise + base + standardization." This pattern conforms to China's reality and the actual situation in the field of export food, and thus is an important guarantee for the quality of such food. Besides, it is the only way for enterprises to aim for scale and intensive development in the international market. With unremitting efforts over many years, China has basically put this pattern in place for major export food items, especially high-risk foodstuffs such as meat, aquatic products and vegetable.
The "ten systems" are: three for supervision at the source - the archiving management system for the inspection and quarantine of planting and breeding bases, the epidemic disease monitoring system, and the supervisory system for pesticide and veterinary medicine residue; three for factory supervision - the hygiene registration system, the classified management system for enterprises, and the resident quarantine official system for large enterprises producing high-risk food for export; three for product supervision - the legal inspection and quarantine system for export food, the system of quality tracing and substandard products recalling, and the early risk warning and quick response system; and one for credit building - a red list and a blacklist for food export enterprises.
- Strengthening supervision of planting and breeding at the source. To effectively control the risks of animal epidemics, plant diseases and pesticide and veterinary medicine residue, and guarantee food quality and safety and traceability at the source, the entry-exit inspection and quarantine authorities adopt the archiving management system for the inspection and quarantine of export food material bases with such risks. Only the raw materials of planting and breeding bases with archiving approval can be used in processed export food, and all the raw material bases with archiving approval are publicized on the website of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine. So far, 6,031 breeding farms and 380,000 hectares of planting bases have obtained such approval. For these bases, the relevant agencies strengthen supervision, prevention and control of epidemic diseases, exercise tight management of agricultural input materials, and enforce a strict supervision system over pesticide and veterinary medicine residue, so that these problems are brought under effective control. In recent years, bird flu has been found in many places around the world, but none at the bases under archiving management in China.
- Strengthening supervision of food producing enterprises. China has adopted a hygiene registration system for all enterprises producing export food, and an enterprise has to be granted such registration before engaging in the production of export food. So far, 12,714 enterprises have been registered, among which 3,698 have passed the HACCP certification of the entry-exit inspection and quarantine authorities. The local entry-exit inspection and quarantine authorities carry out routine supervision and administration of the registered food producing and processing enterprises in a unified way to ensure that the raw materials come from archived planting and breeding bases, and that the production and processing meet the required standards. As regards large enterprises producing or processing high-risk export food such as meat, the entry-exit inspection and quarantine authorities send resident officials to supervise them when needed. The packaging of export food should be labeled with traceable signs according to requirements, so as to ensure the traceability of the products and recall of substandard products.
- Strengthening inspection and quarantine before the food is exported. As prescribed by Chinese laws, all food should meet the standards set by the inspection and quarantine authorities before being exported, and the customs houses at the ports of exit should clear the export food upon the strength of the Customs Clearance List of Outward Goods issued by the entry-exit inspection and quarantine authorities. If it is demanded by the importing country, the relevant entry-exit inspection and quarantine authorities should issue a hygiene certificate to prove that the food meets the required standards, and enter on the certificate the name, address, number of hygiene registration of the producing enterprise, date of production, date of export, loading port and destination port. When the goods arrive at the port of exit, the inspection and quarantine authorities at the port should examine the goods again, making sure they are intact and conform to the information on the certificate. All these measures guarantee the traceability of the food.
- Strengthening the construction of the export enterprise credit system. An export enterprise quality undertaking system and a red list and blacklist system for export enterprises are implemented in a comprehensive way, and efforts are being made to increase the awareness of the persons primarily responsible for product quality and help enterprises to form a mechanism of self-management, self-discipline and consciousness of operation in good faith. Included on the List of Sound Enterprises are those with a complete and effective control system, good faith, effective control over safety risks, and a good reputation in the importing countries. Such enterprises are granted favorable policy treatment. Enterprises with serious quality problems as reported by the importing countries or regions, or which have avoided inspection and quarantine or cheated the inspection and quarantine authorities are punished in accordance with the law and included in the List of Unlawful Enterprises and publicized on the Internet so as to enhance the self-disciplinary awareness of enterprises producing export food. So far, 55 enterprises have been put on the list.
Over the years, the departments of quality supervision and inspection, trade, customs, industry and commerce, and taxation have worked closely to promote the quality and safety level of food exported from China and satisfy numerous Chinese and foreign customers with high-quality, delicious and inexpensive foodstuffs. Yet, there are still a tiny number of enterprises that disregard the law, regulations and standards of China and importing countries and, by deception or fraud, avoid supervision by the inspection and quarantine authorities, or export food by improper channels. Consequently, some adulterated, counterfeit or shoddy foodstuffs have found their way from China into foreign markets. The Chinese government is determined to step up the fight against such activities and prevent substandard foodstuffs from going overseas.
IV. Law Regime and Technological Guarantee System for Food Safety
1.Food Safety Law Regime Gradually Improved
China now has a complete law regime providing a sound foundation and good environment for guaranteeing food safety, improving food quality and regulating food imports and exports.
The specific laws in this regard include the Product Quality Law, Standardization Law, Metrology Law, Law on the Protection of Consumer Rights and Interests, Law on the Quality and Safety of Agricultural Products, Criminal Law, Food Hygiene Law, Law on Import and Export Commodity Inspection, Law on Animal and Plant Entry and Exit Quarantine, Frontier Health and Quarantine Law and Law on Animal Disease Prevention.
The specific administrative regulations in this regard include the Special Regulations of the State Council on Strengthening Safety Supervision and Administration of Food and Other Products, Regulations of the People's Republic of China on the Administration of Production Licenses for Industrial Products, Regulations of the People's Republic of China on Certification and Accreditation, Regulations for the Implementation of the Law of the People's Republic of China on Import and Export Commodity Inspection, Regulations for the Implementation of the Law of the People's Republic of China on Animal and Plant Entry and Exit Quarantine, Administrative Regulations of the People's Republic of China on Veterinary Medicine, Administrative Regulations of the People's Republic of China on Pesticides, Regulations for the Implementation of the Standardization Law of the People's Republic of China, Measures for Investigating, Punishing and Banning Unlicensed Business Operations, Regulations on the Administration of Feedstuffs and Feed Additives, Administrative Regulations on the Safety of Genetically Modified Agricultural Organisms and Regulations of the People's Republic of China on Import and Export of Endangered Wild Fauna and Flora.
(China Daily 08/18/2007 page6)
