Page 2 of
2 China struggles to digest food
safety laws By Hu Ying
law in 2005 and it has already
reached the final stage of its third review by the
provincial People's Congress. In contrast, a
revised national law on food safety was not on the
NPC's legislative agenda until this May, when it
was prompted by proposals from nearly 1,000
representatives after a series of food-safety
crises. Optimistically, it could take another two
years before the law is finally revised.
There is precedence for rapid legal
reforms following major crises. The revised
infectious-disease law was squeezed into the NPC's
2003
legislative agenda after the November 2002
outbreak of SARS (severe acute respiratory
syndrome), and it was subsequently approved and
became effective on December 1, 2004.
Second, a provincial food-safety law can
be revised and updated more easily and more
regularly to match changing conditions as the
economy evolves. The current National Food and
Hygiene Law, on the other hand, has not been
revised since it was enacted in 1995, despite
significant changes in food production,
infrastructure, and technology since then.
Third, a provincial food-safety law can be
adapted to suit local circumstances. Different
provinces produce different food, adopt different
means of production, and vary significantly in
terms of customs and habits. Local governments are
better equipped with relevant knowledge to address
and tackle specific local problems.
China,
perhaps unintentionally, has recently adopted the
"small-laboratory approach" in lawmaking.
Successful legislative innovations at local levels
are copied by other provinces and ultimately shape
national law. The newly proposed draft of
Guangdong's food-safety regulation has several
positive features that, if proved effective, may
influence national laws. The Guangdong regulation
includes detailed provisions for a food-recall
system, sets up clear guidelines on inspection of
sources of raw materials, and contains stricter
rules on food-production documentation. Guandong's
regulation likely inspired other progressive
provinces, such as the Beijing municipality's
proposal for its own food-recall system.
Enhancing governance and
enforcement Agreements and memoranda of
understanding signed with Beijing are not truly
effective unless they are also implemented by
provincial and local governments. Rather than
passively relying on Beijing to supervise
enforcement, direct action by local governments is
likely to produce a happier result, as Beijing
often faces difficulties in implementing even its
own policies.
Perhaps the greatest
difficulty faced by regulators is the sheer number
of food processors, 80% of which are small, with
fewer than 10 workers. Regulating these small and
mobile processors is very challenging; they not
only are quick to close and switch locations, but
they often also change products rapidly, based on
what they perceive to be the greatest profit
opportunity. Only through effective cooperation
with the local government is it possible to
identify and register producers and processors,
implement regular inspection regimes, and ensure
proper hygiene standards.
Hong Kong
adopted a provincial strategy to register and
approve processors after central-government
regulators failed to supervise Guangdong fish
processors adequately after the malachite-green
crises in 2005. Initially, information about 18
fish farms registered with mainland authorities
was provided by the central government to the Hong
Kong government with the aim of gaining export
approval for the farms. However, Hong Kong
authorities traveled to Guangdong to inspect the
18 farms proposed by Beijing, but found that two
were abandoned, two had their licenses revoked,
and six were not even in the local phone
directory. Subsequently, Guangdong provincial
authorities stepped in and registered all
freshwater-fish farms exporting to Hong Kong at
the end of 2005.
Though the registration
system was not watertight, as shown by a turbot
crisis last year during which samples of silver
carp and mud carp containing residue of a
synthetic antibiotic (nitrofuran) were found in
fish supplied by registered farms in Shunde and
Foshan, it enabled the authorities to track down
the sources of the suspect fish and thus contain
the damage. Both Beijing and Guangdong province
were notified promptly, and Guangdong immediately
stepped up its export controls on freshwater fish
for Hong Kong.
The second major problem is
the overlapping authority among nearly 10
food-safety departments at central and local
levels, which results in poor accountability.
While it is difficult to fix this problem in a
short period, the government is attempting to
improve coordination through the formation of
"leading small groups", a type of inter-agency
committee. Hong Kong has tried to address this
challenge by establishing designated liaisons (in
essence hosts) that take responsibility for
coordinating with other agencies if issues fall
outside its own authority.
Prospects
for improved food safety Educating
individual farmers and processors is another
necessary step in China's goal to improve its
food-safety standards.
In the fishery
industry, a number of long-term measures are
necessary, all of which require local governmental
cooperation. First, a government-sponsored program
is needed to raise fish farmers'
production-process awareness and to improve their
access to knowledge: fish farmers often use
illegal products to keep fish alive in polluted
water without understanding the safety
ramifications. There are often low-cost
alternatives to the banned products, but
information about them is not widely distributed
or available. Increasing funding and the capacity
of agriculture extension agencies would be ways to
improve food safety and local knowledge of
regulations and standards. This increased
knowledge would boost rural incomes and local
economies as well.
Food safety is a
complex issue in China, but working closely with
provincial authorities is one way to improve the
effectiveness of the various strategies needed to
solve the problem.
Hu Ying is a
researcher at The Nixon Center in Washington, DC,
and a law student at Duke University. She can be
contacted at huyingjamie@gmail.com. The
author wishes to thank Drew Thompson for his
helpful editing assistance and comments.
(Copyright 2007 Asia Times Online Ltd. All
rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.)
Head
Office: Unit B, 16/F, Li Dong Building, No. 9 Li Yuen Street East,
Central, Hong Kong Thailand Bureau:
11/13 Petchkasem Road, Hua Hin, Prachuab Kirikhan, Thailand 77110
