China adopts law to strengthen food safety control, vows to punish offenders

Source: Xinhua | 03-01-2009 08:58

BEIJING, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- China's top legislature approved the Food Safety Law on Saturday, providing a legal basis for the government to strengthen food safety control "from the production line to the dining table."

Wu Bangguo (C), chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), presides over the concluding meeting of the 7th meeting of the 11th NPC  Standing Committee in Beijing, on Feb. 28, 2009. The  NPC Standing Committee, China's top legislature, concluded its four-day session on Saturday, after approving the food safety law, an amendment to the criminal law and the revised insurance law. (Xinhua photo)

The law, which goes into effect on June 1, 2009, will enhance monitoring and supervision, toughen safety standards, recall substandard products and severely punish offenders.

The National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee gave the green light to the intensively-debated draft law at the last day of a four-day legislative session, following a spate of food scandals which triggered vehement calls for overhauling China's current monitoring system.

Winning 158 out of 165 votes, the law said the State Council, or Cabinet, would set up a state-level food safety commission to oversee the entire food monitoring system, whose lack of efficiency has long been blamed for repeated scandals.

The departments of health, agriculture, quality supervision, industry and commerce administration will shoulder different responsibilities.

These would include risk evaluation, the making and implementation of safety standards, and the monitoring of about 500,000 food companies across China, as well as circulation sector.

The law draft had been revised several times since it was submitted to the NPC Standing Committee for the first reading in December 2007.

It had been expected to be voted by lawmakers last October, but the voting was postponed for further revision following the tainted dairy products scandal last September, in which at least six babies died and 290,000 others were poisoned.

"It actually took us five years to draft this law since the State Council first made legislative recommendations in July 2004.It has undergone intensive consideration, because it is so vital to every person," Xin Chunying, deputy director of the NPC Standing Committee's Legislative Affairs Commission, said at a press briefing after the law was adopted.

She said although China had certain food quality control systems in place for many years, lots of loopholes emerged in past years, mainly due to varied standards, lack of sense of social responsibility among some business people, too lenient punishment on violators and weakness in testing and monitoring work.

China has a food hygiene law, which took effect in 1995, to regulate issues of food safety, but many lawmakers said it was too outdated to meet the need of practice.

For example, the law is far from being adequate in addressing the problem of pesticide residue in foodstuff.

According to the new law, China will set up compulsory standards on food safety, covering a wide range from the use of additives to safety and nutrition labels.