Officials from international food safety authorities including
the World Health Organization (WHO), the UN Food and Agriculture
Organization, and the International Association for Food
Protection, convened in Beijing on Wednesday and said they were
encouraged by China's efforts to improve food safety.
"We are very encouraged that the Chinese government is taking
the food safety issue very seriously and we know that the Chinese
government has taken this seriously for a long time," said Jorgen
Schlundt, director of the WHO department of food safety, zoonoses
and foodborne diseases, at the China International Food Safety and
Quality Conference.
In view of recent media coverage of China's product quality and
food safety issues, the government had taken a series of measures
in the past month to ensure food security and reliability of
Chinese products.
These measures include opening the national work meeting on
product quality and food safety, issuing a white paper on food
safety, establishing a national leading group on product quality
and food safety, and launching recall systems for food and
toys.
Li Changjiang, head of General Administration of Quality
Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, reiterated that the Chinese
government was very serious about solving its food safety issues,
and had been exploring ways to improve its product quality and food
safety.
"China is trying its best to address the problem of food
safety," said the senior food and nutrition officer Biplab Nandi of
the Asia and Pacific office of the UN Food and Agriculture
Organization.
Nandi added that China was an active and positive partner, and
strengthening its food safety capacity had been listed a priority
for the government.
China exports food to more than 200 countries and regions, and a
total of 24.17 million tons valued at US$26.66 billion was exported
in 2006.
Schlundt said developing countries in general were starting to
improve food safety systems and China stood out as an example for
other developing countries.
"We strongly believe that developing countries can learn from
the mistakes that were started in developed countries 20 to 25
years ago and come past that into good food safety systems," said
Schlundt.
Officials from international agencies also urged further
strengthening global cooperation on food safety at the
conference.
Frank Yiannas, president of International Association for Food
Protection, said that facing unexpected food safety risks, all
countries should fully prepare for new food safety issues and keep
improving their food safety supervision systems, so as to reduce
the foodborne diseases.
WHO statistics show that food and waterborne diseases have
become a major threat to world health, leading to the deaths of 1.8
million people worldwide each year, most of whom are children.
(Xinhua News Agency September 13, 2007)
