The National Food Safety Standard System Has Been Basically Established, With Multiple Aspects Involving Food Testing

A recent feedback report from the State Council, submitted to the 25th session of the 12th National People's Congress Standing Committee for deliberation, regarding the handling of the report on the enforcement inspection of the Food Safety Law and the opinions received during the deliberation, indicates that by the end of this year, my country will have established a national food safety standard system of nearly 1,100 items, covering 20,000 indicators, essentially encompassing all food categories and major hazard factors.

Bi Jingquan, Director of the State Food and Drug Administration and Director of the State Council Food Safety Office, reported to the National People's Congress Standing Committee on behalf of the State Council, stating that the National Health and Family Planning Commission has led the completion of the review and consolidation of nearly 5,000 food standards and, together with the State Food and Drug Administration, the Ministry of Agriculture, and other departments, has released 926 national food safety standards. It is planned to release more than 130 more standards by the end of the year, at which point a national food safety standard system of nearly 1,100 items will be formed.

Bi Jingquan said that the State Food and Drug Administration is leading the revision of the Implementing Regulations of the Food Safety Law, which is currently under review by the State Council. The regulations mainly implement the Food Safety Law by improving food safety governance capabilities, strengthening and implementing the main responsibility of enterprises, the regulatory responsibility of departments, and the territorial management responsibility of governments, and implementing the strictest supervision. 

The report points out that the State Council Food Safety Office, together with its member units, is expediting the formulation of a national medium- and long-term strategic plan for food safety. This plan addresses root causes, fundamental issues, and systemic problems to promote "table pollution control" and build a safe food project. The goal is to establish a food safety governance system and capacity that is compatible with a moderately prosperous society within 5-15 years, further improving the level of food safety assurance.

The report also emphasizes the need for a strong crackdown on prominent problems in food production and distribution. The State Food and Drug Administration has established a supervision and sampling inspection system covering 3,264 regulatory agencies and 782 testing institutions at the national, provincial, municipal, and county levels, and a direct reporting system for edible agricultural product sampling data covering 2,916 counties (districts). As of the end of October this year, a total of 915,000 batches of samples have been inspected and the results published, with a sample pass rate of 97.5%. 

According to the report, food and drug regulatory authorities inspected 15.37 million food production and operation enterprises in the first three quarters, discovering 436,000 instances of illegal or non-compliant production and operation, identifying 501,000 violations, completing rectification for 510,000 entities, handling 106,000 cases, with a total value of approximately 250 million yuan and fines of approximately 960 million yuan.

(Original title: National Food Safety Standards System to be Formed by Year-End, Basically Covering All Food Categories)