A National Health and Family Planning Commission (NHFPC) vice-minister, Jin Xiaotao, was on hand for the opening ceremony of the 47th Food Additive Committee meeting in the city of Xi'an, Shaanxi province, on March 23, with Chen Junshi, committee chairman presiding, and representatives of the 51 member countries and a member organization (the EU), and 31 international organizations, taking part.

Jin told the 4-day gathering that the Chinese government has always been concerned with food safety and that President Xi Jinping, and Premier Li Keqiang, have called for tougher controls to ensure food safety and that the NHFPC has lived up to the call for food safety standardization since its founding. He said they have dealt with thousands of food standards and come up with 492 national standards and have basically done everything required for China's food safety and built a national standardized system on food safety.

But, he continued, food safety is a global challenge and the food additive committee have devoted themselves to protecting global health, with fair international food trade have played an important role in food safety in China as well and that China will continue to work with other countries in this. China, he added, will handle its responsibilities and maintain global health and food safety. The meeting included a discussion of General Food Additives Standards, an international food additive system and quality controls.

Before the meeting, Jin met with Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and WHO officials and thanked them for all their great support for the Food Additives Committee in its work and for China's food safety work over the years.