CHINA SET TO UPGRADE FOOD AND DRUG SAFETY

2007-09-01  From Shanghai Daily

THE Chinese government acknowledged yesterday that the country's food and drug safety environment is unsatisfactory, and it set out a series of new targets to ensure improvement.

"As a developing country, China's food and drug supervision work began late and its foundation is weak," said Yan Jiangying, spokeswoman for China's drug watchdog. "This means the food and drug safety situation is inadequate."

In a related move, China's quality supervision authorities blacklisted 14 companies for planning to ship substandard food products and banned them from further exports.

Yan, who works for the The State Food and Drug Administration, said that the Chinese government has established a five-year plan to tighten supervision of food and drug products in a bid to "significantly reduce incidents caused by substandard food or drug products" by 2010.

The SFDA plans to build a national database of information on food security and report accidents, which should cover 90 percent of the country by 2010, she said. The watchdog will also conduct regular checks on 90 percent of food producers.

By 2010, 95 percent of the food in major wholesale markets, farmers markets and supermarkets will meet national standards, Yan said.

As for drug safety, the administration aims to carry out sample checks on at least 80 percent of medicines by 2010. Currently it samples only 30 percent of medicines.

The Chinese government has been under great pressure to revamp the country's food and drug safety system following a series of incidents attributed to shoddy products and several bribery sandals involving high-ranking regulatory officials.

In the most notorious case, China's former top food and drug regulator, Zheng Xiaoyu, was executed yesterday after losing an appeal of his conviction on corruption and dereliction of duty charges. (See story on A2)

The companies singled out for the export ban were exposed by the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine on its Website, www.aqsiq.gov.

The substandard products, which included preserved seafood and fruit, were destined for Japan, Canada, the United States and European.

Some of the products were found to contain additives such as sulfur dioxide that exceeded the levels set by the importing countries, or were contaminated by harmful bacteria.

Lin Wei, an administration official, said the government has paid great attention to the recent health scares caused by substandard food products.

Among them, China's quality control watchdog confirmed in May that two domestic companies had exported contaminated wheat gluten and rice protein blamed for the deaths of dogs and cats in the US.