China Passes New Food Safety Law to Raise Consumer Confidence

Chinese legislators this week passed a new food safety law that consolidates hundreds of regulations, imposes stricter penalties for safety violations and establishes a national commission based in the Ministry of Health to monitor the food and beverage industry, improve standards and authorize product recalls. Effective June 1, 2009, the law will also hold celebrities liable for endorsing faulty products; require
farmers to abide by stricter rules pertaining to pesticides, fertilizers, veterinary drugs, and feed additives; and implement record-keeping requirements for farmers raising crops and livestock for human consumption. Loopholes in the Chinese food safety system attracted international attention last year when melamine-tainted infant formula produced by the state-owned Sanlu Group dairy sickened thousands
of children. “At present, China’s food security situation remains grim, with high risks and contradictions popping out,” the ministry stated in a press release. See Marler Blog, March 1, 2009.

The new law has already drawn criticism by some Chinese officials, foreign manufacturers and domestic consumers, the latter of whom registered skepticism about the government’s ability to police the system at the local level. The deputy director of China’s National Institute of Nutrition and Food Safety said the effort was a “lost opportunity” to create a single agency like the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
“There has been no fundamental reform of the system that many people in the industry hoped for,” the deputy director said. “There will be better coordination, but problems like Sanlu will still happen.” See USA Today, March 1, 2009; Associated Press, March 2, 2009.