Scholars Call for Effective Supervision on Food Safety

In early April， 2011， CCTV re- ported that in some supermarkets of Pudong District， Shanghai， the production date of the steamed buns were changed randomly， and excessive consumption of this kind of steamed bun would harm human health. Afterwards， similar steamed bun scandals were also exposed in other places， such as Wenzhou.Soluble in water， beef extract has a natural flavor of beef and its aqueous solution is fait yellow. By using beef extract， some delis and noodle houses turn pork into beef for reaping profits. As of April， 2011， it was reported that beef extract became a best seller in the Nanjing market.Smoked by poisonous chemical raw material sulfur， poisonous ginger then became tender and crisp. On April 15， 2011， two criminal retreats using sulfur to smoke poisonous ginger in Yichang City of Hubei were cracked down with nearly 1，000 kg of poisonous ginger found.Brown meat essence is an animal drug， such as Ractopamine and Clenbuterol. Adding brown meat essence into feed may increase the amount of animals’lean meat. This March， brown meat essence was disclosed to be illegally used in the swine farms in Mengzhou City， Henan， and the poisonous pork was then distributed to Jiyuan Shineway Food Company.The frequent occurrence of food safety scandals once again touches consumers’ nerve. As consumers target at supermarkets， enterprises and retailers， the food safety supervision mechanism is questioned again， and expectation for corporate social responsibility is stepped up. The general public cannot help but asking: what improvements can be made for the domestic food safety standard mechanism? Under the existing supervi- sion mechanism， why does the shield for food safety collapse time and again? How can food safety be secured radically?Food safety standards need to be detailed and evolvedAs of April 11， Shanghai Shenglu Food Co.， Ltd. was disclosed to illegally produce tainted steamed buns. According to investigations， the company’s malpractice violated at least two rules: first， food addictives such as potassium sorbate， pigment and Cyclamate were illegally added to flour; second， expired steamed buns were recovered to make new ones.“How much corn is on earth required for up-to-standard corn steamed buns? Currently， there is no standard. When formulating regulations on food addictives management， the State did not incorporate catering food， requiring no strict food labels for these unpackaged products， nor addictive name， quantity or main constituents， etc. In short， there is no basis for the supervisory authorities to exercise supervision， nor explicit rule for production enterprises to obey，” said an industry insider.It is learned that most packaged products have relevant product standard， which is printed on the packaging. However， the unpackaged catering products， such as steamed buns， dishes and snacks， largely do not have product quality stan- dard， which leaves a vacuum for law enforcement.This has sparked off great concern from consumers about the safety of unpackaged food. During the early 1980s， 80% food safety standard in UK， France and Germany adopting international standard， 90% in Japan， while 60% in China now. Experts point out that the domestic food safety standard， scarce in quantity and obsolete in criteria， seldom aligns with the international counterpart. Moreover， the domestic food safety supervision standard has been long severely backward. On one hand， China has too old and few standards， lagging far behind international ones; on the other hand， domestic food standard is in a chaos， including sanitation standard， quality standard， national standard， corporate standard……Different standards overlap without clear levels， and what’s more， the same product even has several contradictory standards. Therefore， the domestic food safety standards need to be further perfected.Professor Hong Tao from Beijing Technology and Business University pointed out that the food standard system including State standard， industry standard， local standard and corporate standard needs to be perfected and integrated as the uniform State food safety standard. “Another requirement of standard construction is dynamic progress， which means in the course of social development， the standard implementation needs to be timely traced， investigated and assessed for the continuous amendments to the old standards or unveiling of new standards，” said Hong.Supervisory agencies must shoulder responsibilitiesAccording to the domestic Food Safety Law， supervision over food safety involves many departments such as health administration， agricultural administration， quality supervision， industry commerce administration as well as food drug supervision management， which exercise phase supervision along the farm-to-table chain. Every step needs due supervision from watchdogs concerned， which defends food safety for the general public.This safety shield， however， has been collapsed repeatedly. After the occurrence of food safety scandals， the public keeps questioning: why the authorities concerned did not intensify supervision and law enforcement until rather than before media exposure of the scandals? This signals that many problems exist in the current supervisory system. On March 15， the State Council issued a document to deploy work on food safety in 2011. According to the document， the weak foundation of the domestic existing food safety has not been changed fundamentally with such prominent problems as frequent occurrence of illegal acts in the food safety domain， unfulfilled food safety management responsibilities and out-of-place supervision tasks.“The local governments hold overall responsibilities， and the supervisory agencies specific ones，” said Dr. Weng Shihong of Administrative Management of the School of International Relations and Public Affairs of Fudan University. “This new food safety supervision mechanism still exist many deep-rooted institutional barriers， such as absence of an effective decision center， uncoordinated relations between vertical management departments and local governments， and supervision segmentation resulted from different department interests.”There was selected examination once a month by supervisory agencies， said a staff member from the illegal steamed bun production enterprise involved in the Shanghai steamed bun scandal. When the supervisory agencies came for checking， the enterprise presented the products to them in the office rather than showing them around the production workshops. “Once the supervisory agencies come， we’ll close the door of the production workshops for fear of letting them going into.”“Years of experience indicate that if one matter cannot be well administered by one department， neither can several departments，” said Liu Junhai， Vice President of China Consumers’ Association and Director of Business Law Research Institute of Renmin University of China. The philosophy to eliminate supervision vacuum and establish effective connections was proposed years ago， but its implementation is difficult. According to Liu， food safety scandals cannot be tolerated， and incompetent government departments and staff in charge should be punished harshly， either dismissed or demoted. The status quo that nobody holds responsibilities for the absence of supervision should be changed. The existing adequate supervision team needs to shoulder responsibilities for ineffective supervision.“Many government departments still place development as the priority， as they hold that other problems will become minor ones once the enterprise develops，” said Liu， who regards such a concept wrong， as development should be in line with regulations.Food credit system should be reestablishedMany enterprises have paid highly for inferior food quality， but late comers still repeat the failure. Apart from weak supervision， the absence of ethics and responsibilities cannot be ignored.A sequence of vicious food safety scandals， including tainted milk powder， brown meat essence， drainage oil and tainted steamed buns signaled how serious the absence of integrity and decline of ethics is， Premier Wen Jiabao stressed when talking with the State Council counselors and librarians from the Central Research Institute of Culture and History.“The essence of market economy lies in order economy and moral economy. Effective examination of food safety needs to be established based on sound operation philosophy and integrity of manufacturers and traders，” said Professor Li Lite from the School of Food Science Nutritional Engineering of China Agricultural University.Unlike China， Japanese farmers keep the inferior products to themselves， as they fear that selling inferior products will destroy their own brands， said Li when investigated the agricultural sector in Japan. “Farmers hold a sense of honor and responsibilities for their products， and they set up enterprises to build their own agricultural product brands，” Li said.“Small， scattered and messy characteristics not only exist in the agriculture domain，” Ma Yong， Secretary-general of China National Food Industry Association pointed out. “The domestic food industry is defined by scattered distribution of enterprises， weak technologies and backward equipment. Such a status quo directly results in fierce market competition. To survive with lower direct production operation cost and larger profits， enterprises always resort to such means as selling inferior or fake products as superior or genuine ones， which is likely to harm food safety.”The four leading roles along the food safety chain—manufacturer， consumer， enterprise and government should hold closely related yet distinctly divided responsibilities， and every role should understand that there exists restraint mechanism along with mutual interests， said Associate Professor Zhou Li from the School of Agricultural Rural Development of Renmin University of China. Considering the characteristics of the existing food safety management， more effective measures and solid moral cornerstone via strict law enforcement are anticipated by the general public.“Behind the food safety crisis hides a credit crisis， which is actually caused by the food production model，”said Zhou. “At present， consumers cannot achieve self-supervision， but the existing industrial chain is not reliable. Solution to food safety problems ultimately depends on a new food credit system， such as an eco agricultural model.”