January 2, 2008

China to set up preemptive food safety system

China will set up a preemptive monitoring system to improve the country's food safety, said a senior health official on Wednesday (Dec 31).

The system will attempt to correct food issues by early detection, warning and intervention, said Su Zhi, deputy general director of health inspection and supervision bureau under the Ministry of Health.

The system will include a monitoring network on food manufacturing and distribution with focus on food additives and non-food substances, food-born diseases, and the building of a competent technician team and a transparent reporting system, said Su.

Enterprises must list what have been added into the food products. Except for food additives, it is illegal to add any other non-food substances no matter they are harmful or not, according to Su.

China has had several food scandals before, which damaged the reputation of China-made food products across the world. Despite frequent government crackdowns, illegal non-food substances remained a threat.

The most recent scandal concerned milk and milk products contaminated with industry chemical melamine, killing six infants and sickening more than 294,000 children.

On December 15, 2008, the Ministry of Health published a blacklist of 17 non-food substances that could not be added to food production, including melamine and the cancerous industrial dye sudan red that is used to colour egg yolks.

The ministry will continue to blacklist illegal additives in an effort to encourage public supervision, said Su.