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Chinese consumers concerned about food safety

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-03-27 15:02

THE HUMAN TOLL

According to the Ministry of Health, there were 431 food poisoning incidents reported in China last year, causing 13,095 illnesses, and 154 deaths. Then there was the scandal that broke last September, in which dairy products, including baby milk powder, were adulterated with melamine.

At least six Chinese infants died and almost 300,000 developed kidney problems and other symptoms. In this case, the former board chairwoman and general manager of the Sanlu diary group, Tian Wenhua, was sentenced to life in prison.

Earlier this month, eight senior government officials from food quality supervision departments and agriculture ministry were fired or disciplined for supervisory failure in the scandal.

Last year, the director of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) Li Changjiang resigned. In mid-March, 15 people were arrested in the southern Guangdong Province on charges of selling pigs that had been given fodder containing banned additives -- ractopamine and clenbuterol -- which help pigs produce leaner pork.

The latter chemical is banned as an additive in pig feed in China because it can be harmful and even fatal to humans.

TRADING PARTNERS ACT

The milk scandal had a swift impact on China's dairy product exports. The General Administration of Customs said these shipments dropped 10.4 percent last year to 121,000 tonnes after the scandal made the headlines.

There has also been lost export business for small producers of cooked food, seafood, pet food and even medicine, when these companies found they could not meet the safety requirements of foreign countries.

The concerns reach far down into the local level. For example, Shunde City in Guangdong Province has been a major supplier of eels.

However, the city saw its exports plunge last year after overseas consumers, especially in Japan, became worried about food safety. In the first three quarters of 2008, exports fell 66 percent by volume and almost 53 percent by value.

Shipments to Japan, the single largest overseas buyer of Shunde's eels, fell 61.2 percent. Last November, United States Department of Health and Human Services opened offices of its Food and Drug Administration in Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai, the first outside the United States, as "a part of an ongoing strategy to continually improve import safeguards."

Experts said this move reflected the concern of other countries about the safety of Chinese food. "Once a time, 'Made in China' products are losing trust in overseas markets," said Zhu.

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