China compiles local food safety data based on random spot checks conducted on a large number of food companies in the country in quarterly reports.
The most recent version was compiled from spot checks and testing on over two million batches of local food products, and found that over 60,000 batches of these did not meet local food safety standards.
This came to a 2.95% proportion of samples being in violation of national food safety requirements – and more worryingly, there was also an increase of 0.35% compared to 2023.
“Our analysis across the various samples and food categories has revealed the following concerns: Pesticide contamination in excess of allowed standards which made up 39.94%, microbial contamination which made up 16.32% and excessive usage of food additives beyond permitted quantities which made up 14.99%,” China’s State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) said via a formal statement.
“That said, within food categories that are consumed in large quantities and considered staples in China, the affected rates were relatively low.
“These five major categories included processed grains (0.67%), edible oils and fats (0.96%), meat products (0.87%), egg products (0.15%), and dairy products (0.13%).
“We also found that there has been a decrease in issues detected in vegetable and nut-based items, but some 20 categories of other major food items such as seafood and foods for special needs have seen an increase.
“SAMR has already announced these findings to the public, and several measures have been taken including informing the relevant companies to remove and recall products within the failed batches, stricter control of food safety risks, and to dispose affected products in accordance with relevant regulations.”
Other food safety issues that were detected within this large-scale analysis included organic material contamination (11.29%), veterinary drug residues in excess of allowed quantities (6.76%), heavy metal contamination (5.55%) and product quality failing required standards (4.15%).
Categorical concerns
A deeper dive into the data revealed that the top area of concern is actually within China’s foodservice area, as 6.89% of samples from this sector were found to fail required food safety standards.
Within the retail and packaged food industry, the top foods of concern were agricultural products where 4% or well over 30,000 samples failed the analyses; followed by seafood products (3.74%) and vegetable products (2.94%).
Seasonings, fruit products, baked goods, beverages and bean products were all found to have over 1% of failed batches, albeit at smaller quantities.
Only three categories were found to be truly risk-free within this report: Cocoa and roasted coffee products, infant foods and foods for special medical purposes, all of which recorded zero batches of products that failed inspection.
