On Jun 7th, 2020, China State Administration for Market Regulation (“SAMR”) announced the results of the 2019 national food safety sampling inspection in a press conference. [1]
Overall Result
In 2019, China SAMR inspected 244 thousand batches of food products covering 33 main categories. The overall failure rate is 2.4%, which remains the same as that of 2018. The 558 inspection items included testing of microorganisms, food additive, biotoxin, heavy metal, etc. [1]
High Qualification Rate for Daily Consumption Food
Qualification rate for daily consumption food, such as processed grain products, edible oil, remains high. For example, the qualification rate for meat products in 2019 is 97.0%, which is 0.5% higher than that of 2018.[1] The qualification rate for milk products and infant formula products was almost the same as in 2018. [2]
Great Improvement in Food Safety Problems
The inspection qualification rate for starch and starch products reached 97% in 2019, which increased by 2.3% compared with 2018.[1]
The detection rate of illegal non-edible additive in food was only 0.02%.[1]
No melamine detected in infant formula for 11 years consecutively.[1]
High Failure Rate Foods
Except for frozen beverage and honey products listed below, the failure rate of food products sold online reached 3.2%, which increased by 1.2% compared with 2018. It indicates that the supervision of food products sold online needs to be further strengthened.[1]
Category | Failure rate | Compared with 2018 | The main reason for inspection failure |
Frozen Beverage | 6.1% | -1.1% | Microorganism contamination |
Honey product | 5.7% | +3.6% | Prohibited veterinary drug residue; microorganism contamination |
Reasons for Inspection Failure
Microorganism contamination, food additive overuse, pesticide, and veterinary drug residue are major reasons for food safety inspection failure in 2019.
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