Food quality and safety in China has improved significantly as the country completes the establishment of market access systems for food products.

By the end of 2006, China will have completed market access systems for 525 kinds of food products in 28 categories, according to the annual conference of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine yesterday.

The establishment of the systems began 2002 with the five categories of grain, salt, sauce, vinegar and edible oil. It was followed by 10 categories consisting principally of meat and dairy products, and 13 categories encompassing tea, wine, and egg products.

To date, more than 80,000 food enterprises have acquired market access permit certificates. Next year the administration will further create access systems for cosmetics and food-related products such as packaging and cooking utensils.

"With the completion of the systems, the quality of food products in China has been much improved, and food processing industries have been effectively regulated," Li said.

The administration cancels production qualifications of between 10 and 20 enterprises monthly for various quality defects.

In another development, an archives record system for additives utilised by food processing enterprises, will come online early next year.

"Enterprises will have to make it public what additives they are using and what they are not," according to Wu Jianping, director of food production and supervision of the administration. "The archives will upgrade food production safety from the source," he said.

This year, China has been confronted with food safety problems, especially due to poisonous additives. Recent cases include carcinogenic mandarin and turbot fish, and ducks and hens that were fed cancer-causing Sudan Red dye to turn their yolks red.

"Another importance of the archives system is that it will be able to differentiate between guilty and innocent food producers," Wu said. "Such a record system will at least salvage the innocent ones."

Food safety supervision is especially difficult on the Chinese mainland due to the presence of over 350,000 small food processing outlets with less than 10 staff each.

With backward facilities and poorly trained staff, the outlets usually fail to reach the required quality standards, and has increased supervision difficulty, Li said.

In northern Shaanxi Province, local governments have sent food quality supervision cadres to patrol streets in the urban and rural areas.

"Only through regionalizing and strengthening supervision responsibilities can we solve these issues," Wu said.

China has also made remarkable achievements in improving the quality of food products for export. Statistics show that Chinese enterprises made a 20 percent year-on-year increase in food exports at the end of last month.

(China Daily December 19, 2006)