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UC Davis joins hands with Chinese city to address food safety

Xinhua, May 23, 2015 Adjust font size:

The University of California, Davis, and Chinese city of Zhuhai, signed a memorandum of understanding to establish the World Food Center-China which will address the food safety issue.

The WFC-China will be the central office for coordinating research and training activities in food safety for various Sino-U. S. Joint Research Centers across the country, a UC Davis press release said on Friday.

A facility for the center is being developed in a newly created economic zone in Zhuhai in China's southern Guangdong province.

"China has placed a very high priority on improving the safety of its food and restoring confidence in consumers here and around the world," said Roger Beachy, executive director of the UC Davis World Food Center. "We will measure success by the reduced incidence of unsafe foods in China in coming years."

Signing the official document were Beachy and Ralph Hexter, UC Davis provost and executive vice chancellor, with Wang Qingli, vice mayor of Zhuhai. Mayor Jiang Ling gave opening remarks, and Zhang Laiwu, vice minister in China's Ministry of Science and Technology, attended. Representatives from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration also attended the event in Beijing.

"UC Davis is pleased to participate with Zhuhai City to create this strong partnership for innovation," said Hexter.

Zhongli Pan, an adjunct professor at UC Davis, will serve as the center director. The city of Zhuhai is contributing the first 2.5 million dollars to the center for the initial projects.

The World Food Center at UC Davis was established in 2013 to increase the economic benefit from campus research, influence national and international policy, and convene teams of scientists and innovators from industry, academia, government and nongovernmental organizations to tackle food-related challenges in California and around the world. Endite