July 26, 2007

 

China tightens food safety laws and enacts more bans

 

 

In an effort to clean up its image after the damage incurred over food safety incidents, China has tightened its food safety laws and enacted a series of bans against regions with animal diseases.

 

China enacted a series of bans Wednesday ( Jul 25) even as US representatives were negotiating in China after products from plants of seven US companies were banned on food safety concerns.

 

Poultry and poultry products from Germany, the Czech Republic, the State of Virginia of the United States were banned due to the outbreak of animal diseases at these locations.

 

Swine products from the Republic of Georgia included in the ban as well.

 

Georgia reported outbreaks at the end of April across the country, and culled 20,000 pigs of the roughly 500,000 it had. The US state of Virginia had already banned all poultry sales after bird flu antibodies were found in a turkey farm in the state this month.  

 

China also tightened laws on the use of antibiotics in fish farms after the US banned five types of seafood from China this month. 

 

Inspections would be stepped up to check on the use of antibiotics in fish farms, especially that of nitrofurans and malachite green, Zhang Yuxiang, director of the market and economic information department of the Ministry of Agriculture, said Wednesday (July 25).

 

Malachite green and nitrofurans are cancer-causing chemicals used by fish farmers to kill parasites.

 

China accounts for half the farmed fish in the world and is under pressure from abroad over food and product safety scandals.

 

Beijing has highlighted that problems are not found in Chinese food alone and has highlighted problems with US products as well, noting that it has banned US products previously for food safety problems.

 

China's State Council, or Cabinet, also passed a draft set of rules on Wednesday to strengthen the oversight role of local governments on food safety, which will mandate tougher fines for firms found breaking the law.

 

The meeting, chaired by Premier Wen Jiabao, also promised greater international cooperation, better safety checks and greater openness with quality problems, the government said.

 

Meanwhile, representatives for the US poultry and pork industries negotiating in China are hoping for a quick end to the issue to avoid a protracted debate that could damage the image of the US meat industry. The industry wants to avoid "high profile campaigns" such as having the issue being discussed on high-profile government dialogues.

 

At the same time, they are hopeful that shipments could be resumed after the USDA affirms products from the plants that were banned by China do comply with USDA standards.

 

However, such an affirmation may not be enough. China banned some of the products due to the presence of salmonella and ractopamine in the products. The latter is a leaning agent, which directs nutrients to muscle rather than fat tissue banned in China but approved in the US. The US also allows minute amounts of salmonella on uncooked chickens.

 

The US is not the only country using ractopamine. Major pork exporters such as Canada, Brazil and Mexico uses it as well, industry sources said.

 

The pork industry is currently seeing itself as an innocent bystander as the two nations traded blows and questioned each other's food safety standards, people in the industry said.