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On 7 Apr 2015, AQSIQ published the white paper “National Quality and Safety of Imported Food 2014”, in which the safety progress for imported foods made during 2014 was outlined.
An Overview of Imported Food Trade in 2014
Rapid growth of imported food in China
2014 saw 1.042 million batches of imported food received by CIQs, the value of which totaled USD 48.24 billion. During the past decade, import food trade value has increased by 430% with an annual growth rate of 17.6%.
Expansion of import sources
The number of overseas suppliers for the Chinese market expanded to a much larger scale than before. In 2014, imported foods from 192 countries/regions entered China, among which the top ten exporters by trade value are the EU, ASEAN, New Zealand, USA, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Russia, Argentina and Korea. The sum total of their trade values accounts 82.5% of China’s total import trade value.
Complete range of imported food categories
In recent years a wide range of imported food has been introduced to the Chinese market to meet the needs of Chinese consumers. The leading imported food categories by volume include dairy products, oils and fats, aquatic products, meat products, grain products, alcoholic products, sugar products, beverages, other processed food and canned food.
Progress in Food Safety Paving the Way for Market Growth
The overall stability of imports
The quality and safety of food imported to China have remained reassuringly high for many years without major incidents occurring. During the past several years AQSIQ has tightened supervision on imported foods, a total of 3503 batches of imported foods failed CIQ inspections, representing a 61.9% year-on-year increase. According to official explanations the rising number of incompliant products is primarily due to intensified inspections, stricter regulatory standards and a higher frequency of inspection in addition to quantitative growth in the volume of imported foods.
EU is chief offender when it comes to inspection failures
Among the 79 exporting countries/regions, EU has been issued with the most rectifications due to food safety problems, followed by Taiwan and ASEAN.
Major unqualified foodstuffs
17 major causes have been collected by AQSIQ through data analysis associated with quality, food additives, labeling, contaminants, packaging, etc:
Product category | Major cause |
Dairy, aquatic product, bee product, dried nuts, pastry and biscuits | Harmful microbiological contamination such as escherichia coli, staphylococcus aureus, listeria monocytogenes and vibrio parahaemolyticus |
Beverage, grain products and preserved fruits | benzoic acid, lemon yellow, potassium sorbate, sulfur dioxide |
Alcoholic products, grain products | Heavy metals such as copper, lead, iron, aluminum, etc. |
Oils and fats | Aflatoxin |
Meat products | Veterinary drug residue such as ractopamine |
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