food safety problem.
In China , food safety issues have regularly made headlines in all kinds of newspapers. The general public is overwhelmed by these immeasurable scandals, which have already
affected public trust in the Government. Moreover, since China entered the WTO with more food imports and exports, disputes about food safety have arisen between China and its trading partners. Therefore, it ’s urgent that the Chinese government make significant improvements to food safety.
1. Advancing laws and regulations
In China the 1995
Food Hygiene Law forms the basis of the legal framework for food safety. Many food hygiene regulations were formulated in accordance with the 1995 Food Hygiene Law.
However, laws only spell out general principles in broad terms. Often new regulations are hastily issued by individual departments to deal with particular emerging problems. As a result, many key issues are not covered. There is a need for the government to advance laws constantly. Better cooperation with local government
Central government should ensure better cooperation with local governments on lawmaking. Local government can make a more speedy reaction to revise or update laws than central government. Local governments are also better equipped with relevant knowledge to tackle specific local problems so as to make laws which suit local circumstances. Therefore, cooperating with provincial authorities is one way to improve the effectiveness of the various strategies needed to solve the food safety problem.
Make more severe punishments
Now in China, the punishments are not severe enough. Many food producers are willing to take risks of
making unsafe food for the sake of profits, because even if they are punished, what they have earned is far beyond the penalties. Severe punishments can be a deterrent that prevent some people from producing unsafe food. Namely, the government can make more strict laws to revoke their licenses and confiscate the equipments, ban them from the food industry for 20 years or more, or even execute the death penalty. Ensure a comprehensive food recall system We can take this experience from developed countries, like USA. The USA already has a comprehensive food recall system. For example, in the salmonella infection incident,
the number of eggs recalled nationwide immediately reached more than half a billion. This action can reduce the danger to a minimum level. On the contrary, in China the Sanlu milk failed to recall contaminated milk nationwide, which caused more infants ’ kidney failures. Partly it’s government ’s
fault
Food Hygiene Law
Harsher punishments
because China doesn’t have a well-established recall system.
2.Enhancing governance and
enforcement
Compared with lawmaking, what could be more problematic is the time it will take China to put the regulations into place. The challenges facing China are enormous because its regulatory system is weak and enforcement is particularly difficult. Chinese government should attach great importance to enforce regulations effectively and efficiently.
Ensure no overlap in all departments
Currently, there
is an overlap of
authority between
ten food-safety
organs at central and
local levels, which results in poor accountability.
For example, dealing with swill oil is not successful in China, partly because it requires several organs to act together. The China’s Ministry of Health (MOH) is in charge of swill, the AEP is in charge of waste water and State Administration for Industry and Commence (SAIC) is in charge of business licenses.
It’s difficult to fix this overlapping authority problem. Hong Kong has tried to fix it by establishing designated liaisons (in essence hosts) that take responsibility for coordinating with other agencies if issues fall outside its own authority. Central government may be able to learn some experience from this.
Increase information transparency on enforcement
While China has established many practical and well-considered regulations, its legal system still struggles with corruption and bribery. Probably, the local government may help to cover the scandals made by companies after receiving a large number of money.
The biggest case is Sanlu milk incident. Actually, in April 2008, Sanlu and China National Food and Safety Department received customers’ complaints about Sanlu infant milk quality. However, some government officials tried to suppress the information until it can’t be covered any more and the Sanlu company just provided five bags of milk powder to those families. They didn’t make the right decision in the right time, which caused more death of innocent infants.
Increasing information transparency not only helps gain the public’s trust, but also makes supervision easier. All kinds of departments can reveal all the information on their websites or somewhere else, and the information can not just be removed by some government officials. The information also can be overseen by the general public so as to enhance enforcement.
To sum up, Food safety
is a complex and serious
issue in China. Many
problems are rooted in
the administration regime
and China’s priority of
economic development. Although food safety issue has already been improved, a lot of work still needs to be done both in terms of legislation and implementation. The general public expects government to accelerate the pace to solve the issue.
Overlapping organs