2014 food safety guideline issues

(chinadaily.com.cn)

Updated: 2014-06-25

A national guideline for food safety in 2014 was released by the State Council, or China’s Cabinet, on April 29.

Special campaigns on food sources

Authorities will launch nationwide inspections on edible agricultural products, infant formula, livestock and poultry slaughtering, meat products and cooking oil in order to clean up production processes and crack down on illegal operations.

Highly toxic pesticides will be under stringent management and sold on a real-name system. Use of banned substances such as steroid clenbuterol and leucomalachite green will be punished. Authorities will also intensify efforts to curb land and water contamination.

Production of infant formula will be streamlined and be subject to more national inspections. Online sales of baby milk powder will be further standardized. Authorities will crack down on overuse of additives, unlicensed production and operation, counterfeit products and smuggling of milk powder. Violating enterprises will be exposed and put on a black list.

Collection and disposal of dead livestock will be improved to ensure the quality of meat products. More inspections will be done on enterprises engaged in slaughtering of livestock as well as on poultry markets.

Genuine cooking oil must be guaranteed on the market. Any type of illegal cooking oil production and processing and sales of fake, low-quality oil will be severely dealt with. Kitchen waste will be subject to resource utilization and treatment.

More inspections on food sold in rural areas will be launched to ensure food safety. Small grocery stores, small supermarkets, wholesale markets and mobile vendors will be specifically targeted.

Sales of low-quality food are prohibited around schools. Caterers of school canteens will receive tightened inspection to prevent mass food poisoning.

Food producers and sellers are responsible for recalling outdated food from markets, otherwise they will be punished. Changing production dates and packing of outdated food is forbidden. Recycled and outdated food is subject to disposal.

A more extensive list of illegal food additives will be made to intensify crackdowns on the use of illegal additives. Authorities will also launch more inspections on misleading advertising.

Food trading on the Internet should comply with laws and regulations. Authorities will investigate online sales of substandard food and imported food and set up a supervision system. They will also intensify crackdowns on food smuggling.

More supervision on food safety

A scientific monitoring system on food safety will be enhanced from grassroots to central levels.

More law-enforcement teams will be set up locally for the food safety supervision system.

A system of risk supervision and assessment on food safety will also be built. It will analyze all monitoring results from across the nation, make annual plans on food safety risk monitoring, carry out inspections on food stocks and make assessment reports.