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Full Text: China's food quality and safety (6) |
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22:08, August 17, 2007 |
In pace with the growing number of enterprises obtaining the license, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine has released lists of such enterprises, making clear that producers without the license and products without the QS label must not enter the market, and warning consumers not to use such products.
3. Intensifying State Supervision by Sample Survey for Food Quality
The Chinese government carries out a food supervision and inspection system mainly by means of sample survey. Since it was set up in 1985, the system has been strengthened and become more focused to enhance its efficiency. In recent years, daily-consumption food items, such as dairy products, meat products, tea, beverages, grain and edible oil, have become the major targets of sample surveys, especially those produced in workshops and enterprises located in concentrated food-producing areas. Special attention has been given to the hygienic indices of microorganisms, additives and heavy metals in food, and to follow-up inspections of small enterprises with unstable product quality. By increasing sample survey frequency and coverage, the goal of rectifying producers of the same type of food by means of sample survey has been by and large met. The state supervisory sample surveys were carried out on 11,104 batches of foodstuffs produced by 7,880 enterprises from 2006 to June 2007. Meanwhile, greater efforts have been made to rectify and punish enterprises turning out substandard products, and to set things straight by means of the following: First, strictly implementing the public announcement system. Three hundred and fifty-five batches of food with serious quality problems produced by 355 enterprises were found in sample surveys and publicly announced. At the same time, publicity is given to good enterprises, quality products and sound brands. Two hundred and forty products winning the title of "Famous Chinese Brand" and 548 freed-from-inspection products have become popular among consumers. Second, strictly carrying out the rectification system. Enterprises with substandard products are urged to rectify themselves strictly, to be examined again in due course. If problems persist, they will be ordered to stop production for an overhaul. If they still cannot pass the inspection after the overhaul, their business licenses will be revoked. Third, strictly implementing the penalty system. Producers who mix impurities or imitations with their products, or pass fake or defective products off as genuine ones will be ordered to stop production, and their products be confiscated. Legal liabilities will be imposed in serious cases by the judicial organs.
4. Intensifying Rectification of Food Workshops
Regional differences and disparities between urban and rural areas in China make the supervision of food workshops a prolonged and arduous task. At present, food workshops with fewer than ten employees are the ones that pose the most difficult problem for ensuring food quality and safety. For workshops engaged in traditional, low-risk food processing, the government sticks to the principle of supervision and standardization while giving guidance to such workshops for consumers'' convenience. On the one hand, the government has tried to upgrade them to the market-access requirements by means of shutdown, stoppage of production, merging or changing line of business; on the other, more stringent supervisory measures have been taken to prevent food safety accidents. In recent years, supervision of workshops and small enterprises has been conducted mainly in four aspects: One, transformation of basic work conditions. Workshops cannot start production without meeting the requirements. Two, restrictions on market scope. Food products processed by such small workshops are not allowed to sell outside the administrative areas of townships or towns in which they are located, not allowed to enter shopping centers and supermarkets. Three, restrictions on food packaging. Before obtaining a market access permit, food products from the workshops are not allowed to have marketing package, so that they cannot enter the market disguised as licensed goods. Four, public undertaking. Food workshops must undertake to the public that they do not use any non-food materials, misuse additives, use recycled food, send their products to shopping centers or supermarkets, or market their products beyond the approved region, and guarantee that their food products meet the basic safety and hygienic standards. After such rectifications, the average acceptance rate in sample surveys of food workshops rose to 70.4 percent in 2006. By the end of June 2007, 5,631 workshops had been closed down, 8,814 had been made to suspend production, and 5,385 had reached the requirements after rectification.
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