Guaranteeing food safety will become the food industry's premier target as the nation strives to gauge its food standard to international practice.

The National Development and Reform Commission, the Standardization Administration of China, the Ministry of Agriculture and six other departments announced their 2004-05 development programme for national food standards over the weekend.

China is conducting an rectification within two years. Inspectors will search for all known banned materials in food manufacturing.

To reduce trading barriers, China will raise the ratio of adopting international standards in the food industry to 55 per cent from today's 23 per cent.

"Safety is the first consideration for anything entering people's mouth followed by its nutritious value," said Hao Yu, secretary-general of the National Food Industry Standardization Technique Committee.

He added the usage of food additives will be a major field for consideration in drafting the new standards.

On-the-spot checks during the past two years have revealed the abuse or misuse of additives in food production and processing has become the biggest threat to food safety.

In one case, talcum power was found in flour products, which is outlawed according to national food standards.

"There are currently no methods or standards to test the content of talcum powder in flour under the current norms," said Shang Yan'e, an official with the national watchdog on grain and oil inspections.

Under the guidelines, all banned additives will be recorded as inspections increase.

Relevant departments have allocated funds to conduct risk evaluations on current food additives to fix the limits of their usage.

China will adopt international advanced techniques and standards so as to find out the harmful materials in food within a shortest period.

Source: Xinhua