China is working on a series of technical standards to minimize
pesticide residues and other hazards in food and fabrics,
agriculture and science ministries sources told
China
Daily.
"We are putting the final touches on 69 national standards to
cap chemical residues and other hazards in agricultural products in
the course of production, processing, storage and transport," said
He Yibing, an official with the Ministry of Agriculture.
Unprecedented efforts to set up technical benchmarks and testing
procedures for primary agro-products in China cater to the public's
appetite for safer farm produce and higher quality food, said Fang
Qing, vice-president of the China National Institute of
Standardization.
It also facilitates the implementation of a market access system
for food products and serves the country's intention to expand
agricultural trade, he said.
"Development of technical standards, especially analytical
methods, will give quality watchdogs a yardstick to measure whether
there are direct or potential risks in agricultural products."
Previous analytical methods for farm produce in the country need
to be improved, so as to meet the parameters set by the Codex
Alimentarius Commission (CAC), the global food standards developer,
sources of the Ministry of Science
and Technology said.
The standardization work is spearheaded by the Institute for the
Control of Agrochemicals, and joined by 18 other institutions
including Wuxi Scientific Researching and Designing Institute of
the State Administration of Grain Reserve, and Cotton Research
Institute under Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.
The massive standardization work, initiated in November 2003, is
scheduled to be completed in 2005, with most standards effective
within the year, said He Yibing, also senior engineer with the
Institute for the Control of Agrochemicals.
It will guide producers and processors to work in a way that
strikes a balance between environmental protection, social and
economic benefits, a Ministry of Science and Technology statement
said.
Half of the standards in the pipeline set maximum residue limits
(MRLs) in rice, corn and tea, target hazardous substances like
ochratoxin (a cancer-inducing toxic compound) that may taint wheat,
soybean and peanuts when stored and transported, and puts a ceiling
on heavy metals in irrigating water, He said.
In particular, 21 standards will detail maximum residue limits
of new pesticides that have been applied on crops in China in
recent years, he said.
The standard makers will also take a hard look at fertilizers,
pesticides and plant regulators that have been used in the
production and processing of cotton, hemp and silk to establish
maximum residue limits and make standards for control of harmful
substances in the fabric products, he said.
"We have adopted internationally popular risk analysis
principles and guidelines to determine our maximum residue limits,"
he said.
To be specific, the technical regulations for food and fabric
storage and transport are made in line with the Hazard Analysis and
Critical Control Points (HACCP), he said.
With the guidance of the preventive system, Chinese researchers
examine and analyze every stage of farm produce production and
processing, to determine potentially unsafe links -- "critical
control points" -- at which action is required to control
identified hazards.
The new national standards are expected to boost China's
agricultural trade, since safety and quality concerns, especially
about residual chemicals, have been cited as an excuse by some
countries to keep out Chinese farm exports, experts said.
(China Daily January 29, 2005)