China looks to international cooperation for food safety improvements

World Today

AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File.

China’s Food and Drug Administration on Monday hosted its largest International Conference on Food Safety, with the goal of guaranteeing food safety supervision globally.

“This international conference on food safety is a very important step to demonstrate the Chinese government’s policies and operations to improve the food safety system,” said Li Yong, director general of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization.

China’s recent transformation has lifted millions of its people out of poverty. Now the task is how to ensure the consistent safety of food.

Some say improving and strengthening the laws and the legal framework on food safety are crucial.

“Just early this year in April, another version of law [was] published which will come into effect in October this year. This law is very good and it does adhere to the international standards,” said Bernhard Schwartlander, the World Health Organization’s representative in China. “Now the big challenge is, how you can make sure this good law will be implemented throughout the whole food chain from the production at the farms, small and big, and the processing in factories, handling in supermarkets, down to the people who eat it.”

The conference is part of the events marking Food Safety Publicity Week.

CCTV

For more information on recalled products in China please see these websites:
http://eng.sfda.gov.cn/WS03/CL0755/
http://english.aqsiq.gov.cn/