China Food Traceability Needed to Curb Rampant Circulation of Expired Foods

Supervision and enforcement of regulations governing the illegal circulated of expired foods has long been a weak link in China’s food supply chain. China faces a major problem from expired foods being modified, adulterated, repackaged or relabeled to show extended shelf life. Recently, a local food company in Wenzhou (a city in Zhejiang Province) was discovered selling expired milk products produced by blending expired milk with fresh milk. 250,000 bottles have been reprocessed and sold by the factory during the past half a year.

Professor Liu Peng from Renmin University of China said that although Chinese laws bans the sale of outdated foods there still remains a worryingly high volume of these foods in circulation especially in rural areas which poses considerable potential risks to consumer health and safety. Supervisory capacity issues on the part of provincial governments and lack of social responsibility on the part of unscrupulous manufacturers combine and have made the production and trade of such goods an extremely lucrative market.

Mr. Liu is calling on government to establish a regulatory system including development of a national traceability system to curb the rampant circulation of these goods. China’s new Food Safety Law has also proposed that a food traceability systems should be established to cover the entire food supply chain. The Law also encourages the adoption of information technology measures to retain production and trading information. CFDA will work with MOA and relevant departments to establish a coordinated traceability system for the whole of China’s food supply chain.