China Food Quality and Safety

Prof. SUN Jiong

Former President of CNRIFFI
1. Contents of Food Safety

2. Status quo of China’s Food Quality

3. Problems and Challenges

4. Discussion
 Food Safety

Definition of Food Safety

1. Food Supply
2. Food Quality
3. Food Nutrition
Stages of Food Safety Guarantee Mechanism

• 1st stage: (1949.10-1985)

Food Shortage time

• 2nd stage: (1985-2000)

Abundant Food supply

• 3rd stage: (2000 till now)

Quality, Food safety, Nutrition

 1st stage: Food shortage era
• On Oct. 1, 1949, total national grain yield were 200 million
tons, while double yield of grain could feed 650 million
population and satisfy the industry use.
• In 1956, national grain yield reached 350 million tons which
was still far to meet the needs of people and industry.
Therefore, the policy applied in this stage is called quota
system.
• In 1960, 3 years natural disaster outbreak and many people
suffered from starving.
• Living in food shortage era, who cares about HCH, DDT,
toxic pesticide overdose. The primary thing is survival.
 2nd stage: Adequate Food

• In1986, China grain yield reached 470 million

tons, which met the demands of food
consumption and industrial use.

• Comparison of Moscow & St. Petersburg in

Russia and Shenyang City in China in 1991
3rd stage: Transitional period from adequate
to well-off
• Since 1990, China food industry increase the
number of two digits for ten consecutive year
worthy more than 10 trillion RMB till now.
Wide choice of food variety ranks the top of
world output. The requirements of food
currently are: safe, nutritional, convenient.
• 1) 33 years of Opening Up enables China to
become the second largest economy body,
but at the same time causes environmental
pollution, endangering food safety.
 3rd stage: Transitional period from adequate
to well-off
• 2) People’s moral standard does not follow the
transit to market economy. Counterfeiting,
adulteration and profitability brought about food
safety scandals.

• 3) Food nutritious structure become another food

safety problem.
 2. China’s Food Industry

• 1. Agro-products Production Volume

Rice 185m tons

Wheat 106m tons

Grain output
Corn 148m tons
540m tons

Soybean 13m tons

Tuber crop 34m tons

Oil crops 43m tons

 Pork 51.972m tons

Meat 80.514m
tons Beef 7.5m tons

Mutton 4.697m tons

Aquatic products 52.904m tons Milk 33.025m tons

Eggs 29.456m tons Fruits 170m tons

Vegetables 549m tons

Majority of the products ranking the first globally.

 Outputs and Average Growth Rate in 2010
Growth Growth
Item Unit 2005 2010 Rate(%) Rate(%)
Rice 10,000 Ton 1766.2 8244.4 366.7 36.1
Wheat 10,000 Ton
Powder 3992.3 10118.2 153.5 20.4
Edible
Vegetable 10,000 Ton
Oil 1612 2005 24.4 4.5
10,000 Ton
Meat 7700 7925 2.9 0.6
10,000 Ton
Sea food 4419.9 5373 21.6 4

Sugar 10,000 Ton 912.4 1102.9 20.9 3.9

Dairy Products 10,000 Ton 1204.4 2159.6 79.3 12.4

Cake 10,000 Ton 42.9 150.3 250.8 28.5

Canned Food 10,000 Ton 500.3 918.6 83.6 12.9

Soft Alcohol 10,000 Ton 3565.8 5673.6 59.1 9.7

Liquor (65%,v/v) 10,000 Ton 852.8 5373 4.4 0.9

Beer 10,000 Ton 3126.1 890.6 43.4 3.9

Wine 10,000 Ton 43.4 108.8 150.7 20.2

Soft Drink 10,000 Ton 3380.4 9983.8 195.3 24.2

Refined Tea 10,000 Ton 52.4 143 172.9 22.2

 3. Achievements in Food Industry

• Until 2010, the number of large-scale food enterprises

reaches 41286 in China, increased 73.2% compared with
2005. The gross output value of food industry is 6.1 trillion.
The ratio of gross output value between food industry and
agriculture has been improved from 0.52:1 in 2005 to
0.88:1 in 2010.
• Sales revenue of 27 food enterprises exceed 10 billion
RMB Yuan, while two out of them are 100 billion RMB
more.
• In 2011, 31,735 large-scale food enterprises
contribute gross output value of 7.8 trillion RMB,
with the growth rate 28% compared to 2010,
increase 1.7 trillion RMB
 4. Food Safety Situation

• Scientific researches and food safety

management practices prove that food safety is
not "risk-free", the issue of food safety is a
common challenge to all countries.

• Developed countries:
American corn star-link incident
English mad cow disease incident
Belgium: dioxin incident
California poisonous spinach incident
Germany poisonous bean sprouts incident
Environment toxin
• Developing countries: industrialization brings
“waste water, waste gas, waste residue”, abuse of
antibiotics and pesticide, resulting in overdose of
pesticide residue, veterinary drug residue and
pollution of earth, air and water etc..

• Under-developed countries: shortage of food

supply, starvation, serious water pollution and
disease etc..
 3. China’s Food Safety Problems and Challenges

• China’s food safety problem is a complex

and varied one.
1. Environmental pollution caused by industrialization
steel 720m tons
60%
cement 2.2b tons
rare earth 1st
2. Fake products driven by profits rampant on the market;
3. Insufficient governmental supervision
Section-based supervision with product supervision;
A number of supervision departments: Ministry of
Agriculture, AQSIQ, Ministry of Health, SFDA, Ministry of
Commerce, etc.
 Case Study
• Melamine incident in 2008
C3H6N6 C3H3(NH2)3
N%﹥66%
Infant milk powder poisoned with melamine: kidney disease
• Chinese government punished related
officials and enterprise;
• Insufficient supervision though with multi-
departments involved in the supervision
system.
 2. Food standards problem
• Standards missing; standards overlapping;
standards from different departments; standards
too high or too low…
• Formaldehyde standard in beer: different
standards set by Ministry of Agriculture and
Ministry of Health;
• For bacteria standard in quick-frozen dumpling:
too high;
• For bacteria standard in fresh milk: too low.
• Ministry of Health and other related health
administrations should coordinate food safety
standards, food hygiene standards, food quality
standards and uniformed them as food safety
national standards;
• National food safety standard (Ministry of
Health)
• Industrial standard
• Local standard
• Enterprise standard
• Food safety local standard and enterprise
standard.
 3. Food safety risk assessment

• Safety assessment
e.g. Rice, Corn Aflatoxin
Shrimp Nitrofunan
Soy sauce 3-MCPD
• Sudan Red, Melamine, Nitrofunan, Malachite
Green, Aflatoxin, Nitrite, Mad Cow Disease,
Dioxin, Environmental Estrogen…by developed
countries instead of developing countries.
• In June 2012, content of Ethyl Caramate
(EC) was higher than standard.
EC is IIA cancerogenic substance.
According to global standard:
450ppb in grape spirit;
150ppb in liquor;
85ppb in wine
In France: 1000ppb for grape spirit and XO.
• In November 2012, DEHP scandal in liquor
broke out.
• Less than 0.3ppm according to Ministry of
Health.

The above-mentioned cases indicate that food

safety risk analysis forms the basis for standard.
 4. Measures taken
• 1. Measures:
Chinese government prioritize food safety.
Food Hygiene Management Regulation in
1979
Food Hygiene Law (Trial) in 1982
Food Hygiene Law in 1995
• 830 laws and regulations related to food safety,
covering food standard, food storage, food
hygiene, feedstuff production, pesticide residue,
food additives, etc.
• Food Safety Law on 28th February, 2009.
• 11327 pieces of advice and suggestions from
the public, governmental agencies, food
enterprises, industrial associations, WHO, EU,
etc.
• According to Food Safety Law, food Safety
Commission was established under State
Council as the highest level coordination
agency for food safety supervision.
• Define clearly responsibilities of different
governmental departments in food production,
distribution and catering.
• Health administration department is responsible
for comprehensive coordination, risk analysis,
food standards formulation, information
publishing, certification of food testing agencies,
formulation of testing norms and handling of
major food safety incidents.
• Food Safety Commission, established in 2010, is
chaired by Mr. LI Keqiang, premier of State
Council and by 2 vice chairmans who are also
vice premier of State Council.
• Institutional reforms in march 2013.
Agro-products processing supervised by
Ministry of Agriculture;
SFDA supervises rest of the food chain;

Segmented supervision system was

transformed; responsibilities clarified to
one or two departments.
• Thirdly, the State Council is authorised to adjust the food
safety law regarding to food safety supervision and
administration system according to the requirements.

• Fourthly, A local people’s government at or above the

county level shall undertake the overall responsibility for
the food safety supervision and administration within its
own administrative region, uniformly lead, organize and
coordinate the work of food safety supervision and
administration within its own administrative region,
establish a sound whole-process food safety supervision
and administration mechanism, uniformly lead and
exercise command in responses to food safety
emergencies, improve and execute the food safety
supervision and administration accountability system,
and appraise, discuss and evaluate the performances of
the food safety supervision and administration
departments.
• To prevent inconsistence of different food safety
supervision departments. The food safety law prescribes
the health administrative departments, agriculture
administrative departments, quality supervision
departments, industry and commerce administrative
departments, food and drug supervision and
administration departments at and above the county
level shall strengthen communication and closely
cooperate with each other, and exercise the powers and
assume the responsibilities under their respective
functions.
 Case Study

There are 1002 varieties of food raw material

supply in Olympics and Paralympics, about
90million tons in quantity and supplied more
than 6million portions of meal, pass rate of food
supplied for Olympics and Paralympics are
100%
• After Wenchuan earthquake happened in 2008,
Chinese government organized promptly to
launch food on-site fast inspection and daily
supervision, non-compliant foods were not
allowed to provide for victims and relief
personnel and gave guidance in food safety for
group cateens and cetering service under poor
condition in stricken area to ensure the food
safety issue.
2) Monitoring and Assessment of Food Safety Risks

The state shall establish the food safety

risk monitoring system to monitor the food-
borne diseases, food contamination and
harmful factors in food. The health
administrative department of the State
Council shall, jointly with relevant
departments of the State Council, work out
and execute the national food safety risk
monitoring plan.
• The health administrative departments of the
people’s governments of the provinces,
autonomous regions and municipalities directly
under the Central Government shall, according
to the national food safety risk monitoring plan,
and by taking into account the actualities of their
respective administration region, organize the
preparation and execution of the food safety risk
monitoring program for their respective
administrative region.
 Food Safety Standards

Food standards should be formulated to ensure

public health and should be rational and reliable.
Food safety standards are compulsory. No other
compulsory food standards should be formulated
other than food safety standards.
According to Food Safety Law, food safety national
standards should be formulated and published by
health administration departments of State Council.
Standardization department of State Council should
provide standard serial number.

Food safety national standard should be formulated

based on food safety risk assessment. International
standard should also be taken into consideration.
Opinions from food producers and consumers
should be considered.
 4) Food Production and Business Operation

Firstly, strengthen management to food producing

workshops and food stalls. They shall be regularly
inspected the legal compliance of the operating
environment, admitted food traders conditions and
internal food safety management systems, as well as the
safety of food traded. Immediately upon detection, any
trading of unsafe food or any other activities in breach of
this Law and promptly shall be prevented and reported
the incident to the local administrative department for
supervision and administration of food distribution and
provision of catering services at the county level.
• Secondly, the state shall encourage enterprises
engaging in production and business operation
of food to meet the good manufacturing practice
(GMP) and implement a hazard analysis and
critical control point system (HACCP) so as to
improve the food safety management level
• Thirdly, establish the complete certification
documents system. When purchasing food raw
materials, food additives and food-related products,
a food producer shall check and verify the
supplier’s license and product compliance
certification document. It shall, under the food
safety standards, inspect the food raw materials,
for which the supplier is unable to furnish a
compliance certification document. It shall not
purchase or use any food raw material, food
additive or food-related product that does not
conform to the food safety standards.
• Fourthly, No food claimed to have particular effects
on human health shall cause any acute, sub-acute
or chronic harm to the human health. The labels
and instructions of such food shall not involve the
effect of prevention or treatment of any disease,
and the contents thereof shall be true and indicate
applicable groups of people, inapplicable groups of
people, effective ingredients or symbolic
ingredients and contents thereof, etc. The effects
and ingredients of a product shall be consistent
with the indications in the labels and instructions.
Relevant supervisory and management
departments shall take the responsibility.
 Fifthly, establish the food recall system. Where a
food producer finds that any food it produces does
not conform to the food safety standards, it shall
promptly stop the production, recall all the food
already placed on market for sale, notify the related
producers, business operators and consumers and
record the recall and notification information.

• Once food business operators found any food in

operation does not meet food safety standards,
they should promptly stop the business, notify
related food producer and consumers and record
notification information. Food producer should recall
all food products if necessary.
• The food producer shall make remedies to, make
innocuous disposal of, destroy or take other measures
against the recalled food, and report to the quality
supervision department at or above the county level the
information about the recall of food and about disposal of
the recalled food.
If the food producer or business operator fails, under the
provisions of the food safety law article, to recall or stop
the business operation of the food that does not meet
the food safety standards, the quality supervision
department, industry and commerce administrative
department or food and drug supervision and
administration department at or above the county level
may order it to recall the food or stop the business
operations.
• Sixthly, food advertisements shall provide
truthful information and shall not include any
false or exaggerated information or any
statement of functions for treating or diagnosing
any disease.
5) Severe punishment for food safety violation
Fake food;
Serious penalties;
Inspectors will be forbidden from inspection-
related work if testing report is found false.

6) Increase public awareness of food safety

 Discussion
I. Food safety supervision system
The production of food from field to table experiences
a complex production chain and many departments
are involved, so supervision if extremely complicated.

Worldwide 3 supervision mode:

1) Canada and Denmark: agriculture
2) USA: multiple ministries
3) Japan and EU: food safety committee + multiple
ministries
Segmented supervision induces supervision
overlapping, missing and evasion. AQSIQ
combines functions of different departments, which
brings segmented supervision to an end.

Suggestion: adopt suitable mode according to

national situation. Usually a country with fewer
population can designate one department to be
responsible.
II. Formulation of food safety standard
Food safety standard is the basis for law
enforcement and international non-trade barrier.
The formulation should abide by national situation.
The standard of the target country should be met
in trade.

III. Supervision focus: disadvantageous groups

and areas with low production capacity
IV. Strengthen awareness
1. Primary & middle school textbook
2. Law enforcement staff, manufacturer and
media staff training
3. Consumer food safety brochure
 5 China’s food safety
A. China’s industrialization was realized with the
price of environment: air, water, soil. Food raw
materials are contaminated. Food safety is a
long-term task.
B. With the development of science and testing
equipments, testing accuracy is higher.
Therefore, it is possible that we can find
harmful substance in all foods, but it doesn’t
mean that foods with any amount f harmful
substance is poisonous.
• C. Food safety should start with agro-
products. To ensure food safety is a long-
term task in China. Consumers need more
faith in food safety and should avoid
irrational fear for food.

• Chinese people’s life span: 74.9; 80 for

Beijing, Shanghai, etc.
• D. Government should give top priority to
food safety to win public confidence.
Thank you!