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Food safety, which has caught growing attention among the Chinese
on the road of affluence, may become a topic of discussions during
the annual sessions of lawmakers and political advisors.
Many people in China have become critical of food safety
especially since the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome
(SARS) that hit the country early last year. And some people are
still worrying about the safety of poultry products though experts
and scientists have kept reminding the people that it is absolutely
safe to take well-cooked chicken and eggs.
Their worry is not without reason as a nationwide survey of more
than 2,000 kinds of foodstuffs last year indicated that only 82.1
percent of them were up to standard, whereas the qualification rate
for products made in small firms and workshops was merely 76.2
percent.
The outcome of the recent sample survey by China's top quality
control authorities, coupled with a number of food poisoning
accidents in the last few years, has irritated members of the
National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative
Conference (CPPCC), the top advisory body of the country.
The CPPCC national committee members, who are in Beijing from
across the country for an annual session slated for opening on
Wednesday, urged substantial measures to secure food safety.
In an interview with Xinhua, member Zheng Jianhe from Jiangsu
Province, east China, suggested prompt actions be taken for
implementing the market access system that keeps unqualified food
enterprises from entering the market.
Since China adopted the market access system in August 2002,
only 17,900 out of the nation's 106,000 food companies have
obtained license for foodstuff production.
"Compulsory measures must be taken to implement the system and
improve management in an all-round way," noted Zheng. "This is the
only way to quality control for food products in the whole process
from cropland or workshop to market. The government should not only
keep an eye on production bases, but enhance quality inspection in
marketplaces," he added.
Member Wang Qinping, who is also deputy director of the State
Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine,
also upbraid local leaders for blindly pursuing economic growth and
permitting the operations of those small firms producing
substandard foodstuffs.
Of the 106,000 food companies in China, approximately 70 percent
are family workshops each with less than 10 employees and 60
percent do not have adequate conditions for production.
Local officials should support the effort to straighten out
family food workshops out of the human-based scientific concept of
development advocated by the country' central authorities.
(China Daily March 2, 2004)
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