China Food Safety: Major Safety Problems Discovered During CFDA Sampling Inspection

Feedbacks from CFDA’s sampling inspection (Stage II) on food and food additives were made public on 5 Dec 2014. 19 categories of food and food additives were involved, including grain and its products, edible oil, fat and their products, meat and its products, egg and its products, vegetable and its products, fruit and its products, aquatic products, beverages, condiments and dairy products, etc.

Since the establishment of the CFDA in 2013 it has prioritized food sampling and inspection as a fundamental step in planning future food safety reforms. A CFDA inspection team was set to ensure a “unified plan, operation, data collection as well as result sharing” would be implemented during national food inspection campaigns. According to Food Sampling Inspection Plan 2014 released in the first half year, the focus of this year’s sampling inspection plan is to find problems and safety issues and detect food issues as early as possible. Emphasis was placed on high risk food based on past issues. The inspections were subject to related national standards, part of the results is as follow:

Major problems found during the sampling inspection are

• Microbiological contamination: Bottled water, sauced meat and cooked meat products are mainly involved.

• Substandard qualities: oil, fat and their products, smoked & cooked sausage and ham, flavored fish products and condiments are mainly involved.

• Excessive amount of food additives: The issues of excessive use of food additives such as preservatives and sweeteners are still common among meat products and aquatic products, etc.

Local FDAs are instructed to issue rectifications in line with Chinese regulations, and it is possible that further measures will be taken to prevent future safety problems.