food safty in china

Food Safety in China
What is Food Safety?
When we talked about food safety, our first thought may include pesticides or growth hormone. The safety food is more than these. Food safety is a scientific discipline describing handling, preparation, and storage of food in ways that prevent foodborne illness. This includes a number of routines that should be followed to avoid potentially severe health hazards. (Wikipedia) By definition, the FDA views its food safety code as a means to "safeguard public health and provide to consumers food that is safe, unadulterated, and honestly presented."
Food safety is an important issue. Consumers trust that the food they purchase will be safe and of the quality that would be expected. Consumers also expect to be provided with information that can help them to make informed decisions about the composition of food products, and that this information, whether provided on product labels or through advertising, is not false or misleading. Since news broke that SanLu Company was selling melamine-tainted milk, a potentially poisonous substance used in plastics manufacturing, billions people greatly shocked and angry, because most diary products are infant formula. The dairy scandal that has poisoned thousands of children raises difficult questions about food safety regulation, manufacturer’s responsibilities and consumer awareness. The continued question is what is the status quo of China’s food safety, why all over the world people begin to study and search food safety in China.

Food Safety Issue in China
Three years ago, China was rocked by food safety concerns when the milk powder parents were feeding their infants was found to be laced with melamine, an industrial chemical. The national media announced the Cabinet has established a food safety commission in response to a series of embarrassing scandals involving tainted food products.
Even three years after the melamine scandal that poisoned thousands of children with toxic infant formula, food scandals have continued unabated and public paranoia over food remains high. A survey by the Pew Research Center released last year showed that 41 percent of Chinese people believe food safety is a very big problem, up from 12 percent four years earlier, a larger increase than for any other major worry, including corruption and air pollution.
Unsafe food was a very serious problem and not easy to solve. On March 6th, 2013, from the China’s National People’s Congress, a delegate from Zhejiang took out some peanuts in black case, had rich flavor, and dropped them in a glass of clear water. The water immediately turned black from the chemical dye coating the nuts. “This is not a show. I want people to see how these toxic additives are proliferating and harmful,” said Zhu Zhangjin, who brought more than 300 different samples of doctored food products to Beijing. (Qianjiang Evening News, a daily, on March 7.)
According to previous scare, melamine milk powder, watermelon explosion, and pesticide soak vegetables, food safety again by the whole Chinese people's attention. In the last year, reported state television KFC chicken products containing excessive antibiotics, consumers deserted the once-popular fast-food chain. Sales fell 20 percent at the Louisville-based company’s 5,200 restaurants in China in 2013, parent Yum! Brands (YUM) said on March 11. The company, which gets about half its revenue from China, has launched a campaign to reassure consumers about the safety of its menu.
The gutter or more than second time used (keep repeat used), cooking oil become the majority problem in the whole china, no matter how famous or who tinny restaurant, they both use these trash oil. A Shanghai hot pot restaurant owner was sentenced to 3½ years in jail earlier this month for using potentially toxic recycled oil. In January, China said it would offer whistle-blowers rewards of as much as 300,000 Yuan ($48,221), for tips on food and drug safety problems. Xinhua, the government's news agency, called gutter oil “the most nerve-jittery problem of late” concerning food safety, and one that showed “a really nasty reality of Chinese food today”.
Beijing’s pork buns and tap water forbidden the ingredients from the china biggest city; Shanghai because thousands of dead pigs were found floating in the Huangpu River, which flows through the city, and in upstream tributaries. About 6,000 animals have been fished out. The public media are reported that dead pigs floating in a river supplying water to Shanghai, raising fears of contamination; but the official Xinhua News Agency reported Shanghai authorities emphasized and insisted city water has not affected, which is absurd and ridiculous.
From the official media, we can understand why the food safety cannot be solved fundamentally, the government doesn’t want to assume responsibility, and the law does not require special severe punishment on the issue of food safety. Although some of the sensitive problems and topics will associate with party and financial syndicate, the government still tries to figure out the awkward question.
The Government’s Measurement and Policy
China’s food safety regulation system is complex. The Food Safety Commission directly under the State Council coordinates and supervises the main authorities currently responsible for food safety in China, including the Ministry of Health (MOH), the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ), the State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC), the State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA), the State Administration of Grain, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) and the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM).
China has established its basic food, food additives and food related safety standards system, which comprise a core of some 1,900 national food safety standards and over 3,100 industrial standard, as well as more than 1,200 local standards.
For example, under the Food Safety Law, China is to establish a food recall system (Article 53). All food producers and distributors are encouraged to actively recall their defective food products; otherwise relevant government agencies (the AQSIQ, the SAIC and the SFDA) can order compulsory recalls. The law also increases the administrative penalties for non-compliance with government-ordered recalls. But the law does not clearly specify mandatory follow-up procedures after recalls, such as remedy, harmless processing or destruction. Therefore, there are certain cases where food companies have repackaged, relabeled and resold, which were supposed to be destroyed.
The Chinese government announced it will create a new super ministry to ensure the quality of China’s food and drugs on March 10, 2013. The General Food and Drug Administration will assume responsibility for setting standards and monitoring production, distribution, and consumption—tasks previously handled by as many as nine different government organizations. “The restructuring will better facilitate the enforcement of the food safety laws and regulations, and improve the safety of the nation’s food and drugs,” said Chen Xiaohong, a vice minister of health. (The official English-language China Daily)
Reflection
One is to adjust the policy, perfect food safety laws and regulations and related regulatory system, severely crack down on illegal food production.

In this one, facing the food hygiene department related to a big responsibility. They want to control food pollution from every link of source, production, circulation, sales, strengthen the food market supervision, improve the market management and food production license system, the food market access system and the forced return system unsafe food, often carry out supervision and inspection of agricultural products and food, such as counterfeiting, counterfeits of illegal behavior of punishment.
Two is to improve the integrity of the enterprise level and the quality of employees.
Government departments should strengthen the publicity and education of socialist morality, integrity, ethics, strengthen the construction of social credit, enterprise credit and individual credit, formation of honesty, integrity and social atmosphere, promote social harmony, building a harmonious society. And do the supervision of the conduct of enterprises, to ensure that the enterprise business activities in accordance with the law, safeguard the people's lives and health. Related enterprises should also try to organize workers to learn advanced production technology and management experience, improve personal and enterprise quality.
Three is the establishment of a good social atmosphere of public opinion, give full play to the supervisory role of the media.
Using all the media to publicize the importance of food safety, strengthening the awareness of food hygiene and safety, to educate people like environment, cherish life, improve the quality of the whole people.
Four is to strengthen consumer discrimination ability and consciousness of rights.
From the individual, the individual point of view, should be based on the life, interests, and consciously improve food safety awareness, and actively discover and report illegal behavior of enterprises, make full use of legal weapons to protect their legitimate rights and interests.

Sources
1. Food safety background. (Food Safety Update) The National Provisioner. 216.6 (June 2002): p134. http://0go.galegroup.com.catalog.lib.cmich.edu/ps/i.do?&id=GALE|A89397706&v=2.1&u=lom_cmichu&it=r&p=GRGM&sw=w 2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_safety

3. Title: Food safety background. (Food Safety Update) The National Provisioner. 216.3 (Mar. 2002): pS1. http://0go.galegroup.com.catalog.lib.cmich.edu/ps/i.do?action=interpret&id=GALE%7CA8524050&v=2.1&u=lom_cmichu&it=r&p=GRGM&sw=w&authCount=1 4. China Sets Up a Food Safety Super-Regulator. Dexter Roberts http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-03-14/china-sets-up-a-food-safety-super-regulator 5. With 6,000 Dead Pigs in River, Troubling Questions on Food Safety. Didi Kirsten Tatlow http://rendezvous.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/13/with-6000-dead-pigs-in-river-troubling-questions-on-food-safety/?ref=foodsafety 6. China’s Food Safety in 2012. Sun Xi. August 2012 http://www.sustainalytics.com/sites/default/files/chinasfoodsafety_august2012_0.pdf