Food safety budget boost needed to remove ‘Made in China’ stigma
It remains unclear exactly how much funding has been proposed to strengthen food safety as part of the country’s 2012 draft budget, however, since the beginning of the year large scale food safety policy measures have been ordered, according to the quality control company.
Earlier this week, the Chinese Ministry of Finance submitted a draft national budget for 2012 to the annual full session of the 11th National People’s Congress (NPC).
The national budget comes just weeks after AsiaInspection announced that more than half of all food firms on the Chinese mainland failed safety inspections in 2011.
Chinese government figures have, however, suggested that rogue elements within the industry are on the retreat, and a Chinese media has reported on plans from within the NPC to revise food safety laws in 2012.
Made in China
“While the rest of the world’s population remains quite skeptical about ‘Made in China’ food, it may be among the Chinese themselves that this skepticism is strongest,” AsiaInspection CEO Sebastien Breteau told FoodProductionDaily.com.
Research has discovered that 48% of the Chinese public do not trust food produced in China.
“And, as China is the world’s leading exporter of rice, potatoes, flour, peanuts, tea, apples, cotton, pork, fish and processed food; there’s no choice but to increase efforts and budget allocated to this issue.”
“The government has made ‘examples’ [of food firms and individuals in China], with the selective and occasionally enforcement of laws, but given the size of the country and the dimension of the issue itself, you can’t expect significant results overnight,” said Breteau.
More than 5000 companies involved in crimes affecting food safety were closed in 2011 and many government officials received administrative sanctions for misconduct relating to these cases.
Slight improvement
According to official Chinese government figures, incidents of illegal activities related to food dropped by more than 10,000 to 62,000 in 2011.
The number of unlicensed food producers arrested also fell from 72,000 in 2010 to 43,000 in 2011.
“There is a slight improvement in the overall situation. But the number of illegal activities remains high. The first step to improve the quality and safety of food processing firms would be to enforce even stricter controls,” Breteau added.
“We expect things should improve – but again, when you consider the size of China’s food industry, significant changes won’t come overnight. It’s definitely a long term process.”
Food law revision
NPC deputy Wang Ying told China Network Television (CNTV) earlier this week that the Chinese government is looking to put a major focus on food safety in 2012.
Wang Ying said: “I’ve done some research in relative departments and spoken to many ordinary people. I’ve studied the entire process from food production to distribution. So this year I want to make a proposal to the NPC committee about revising the food safety law.”
FoodProductionDaily.com approached the National People’s Congress (NPC) but it was unavailable for comment before publication.
The Chinese Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) was also approached, but it declined to comment.
