The draft food safety law submitted to China's top legislature
for first review yesterday proposes the establishment of a
State-level food safety risk evaluation committee.
The committee would be composed of experts from relevant fields,
including health and agriculture, and be responsible for assessing
certain food or food material risk if the draft were approved.
The evaluation results, the draft says, shall provide a "key
basis" for constituting food safety standards and policies such as
food-borne disease control measures.
Standard-setting authorities would in turn be required to make
timely updates or draft food safety standards based on the
assessments.
Information departments should also publish food safety warnings
if the evaluation suggests a certain food is potentially dangerous,
according to the draft.
While explaining the draft law to the National People's Congress
(NPC) Standing Committee, Cao Kangtai, head of
the State Council Legislative Affairs Office, said that the lack of
scientific and coherent food safety standards had become a major
problem in China's food management
"But it's impossible to develop scientific standards without
scientific evaluation and figures," he said.
Chen Junshi, a senior researcher with the National Institute for
Nutrition and Food Safety, said the move marked "a big step
forward".
"The establishment of a sound food safety risk evaluation system
has become a common practice in many countries in the world," he
said. "We're now catching up."
The draft law, to replace the existing Food Hygiene Law, also
proposes a labeling system making food producers responsible for
statements about ingredients, additives, expiration dates and
functions on user manuals and packages. A recall system and a food
safety information release system are also proposed.
In addition, the draft law seeks to impose strict examinations
on food imports and exports.
It states "imported food should be in accordance with national
standards and labeling system.
Exported food should meet the requirements of destination
countries and pass the examination of inspection and quarantine
institutions of foreign countries".
However, experts are disappointed that the long-expected draft
law overlooks the restructuring of the current food safety
supervision mechanism.
Food safety is currently overseen by at least six major
government departments, resulting in overlapping responsibility and
law enforcement.
However, Chen said reform of the current mechanism was difficult
because it affects the interests of some government agencies.
"The draft law doesn't change any of the existing supervision
system," he said. "It only stipulates that the State Council has
the power to change it in the future," he said.
"We expect the next government, to be in power next March, to
make some concrete changes in reforming the system."
(China Daily December 27, 2007)
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