September 3, 2007

China issues new rules on food safety recall

China has a new set of recall rules Friday (Aug 31) for food and other products to assuage international fears on product safety.

The rules, issued by the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, require manufacturers to halt production and sales and give notice to vendors and customers when product defects are found. Manufacturers would also be required to report such incidents to local quality control authorities.

Three levels of severity would be established, with a timeline for action in each case.

The AQSIQ's chief administrator, Li Changjiang, called for an all-out effort to implement the new systems.

Local news reports said the recall systems were already in place in the provinces of Sichuan, Zhejiang, Hubei, Gansu and Qinghai, with a particular emphasis on food production.

The moves come at a time when China's international reputation had been battered by repeated reports of shoddy production endangering lives of consumers.