January 14, 2008

General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine

I. The Rectification has got great effect

Since August 2007, according to the arrangements of the State Council on the Special Rectification Action of Product Quality and Food Safety, authorities of quality supervision, inspection and quarantine have conducted the Rectification actively and without ostentation. The tasks of the Rectification have been fulfilled completely and the objectives of the Rectification have been all reached.

Upon the finish of the Rectification, 100 percent of the 98 thousand food production and processing enterprises throughout the country have got licenses of production and all licensed products have been attached with the QS Mark. The illegal practices of using non-food materials and/or recycled food to produce and process food have been eliminated basically. The illegal practices of abusing food additives such as preservatives and colors have been effectively held back. 100 percent of the 120 thousand small workshops have signed commitment of quality and safety. There are 16 types of illegal food production and processing practices such as producing infant formula milk powder in cities at or above county level, in towns where the government of township locates and in conjunction areas between city and village without license have been solved. The serious illegal practices of producing and selling counterfeit commodities in important areas have been eliminated generally. 100 percent of the 33 thousand enterprises of 10 categories of consumption products have established quality records and the illegal practices of producing these 10 categories of products without license have been solved generally. More than 10 thousand enterprises have been subject to the China Product Quality Electronic Supervision Network. 100 percent of the 16 thousand raw material bases for food export have been inspected and the check of Clearance Certificate online has been carried out comprehensively. 100 percent of the 168 lots of meat, fruit, scrap materials and etc. imported illegally have been rejected or destroyed and the inspection and quarantine on import and export agricultural products with high risks has been strengthened. 100 percent of the more than 120 thousand lots of export food have been attached with inspection and quarantine marks.

II. The general level of product quality has been further promoted

According to the selective supervision examination on 208 categories of products conducted by AQSIQ following the Rectification Action, the qualified rate of foods, important consumption products and some products that have close relationship with the work and life of people have been raised by 3 to 4 percent, some even higher.

III. Regional quality problems have been rectified effectively

In the Special Rectification Action, AQSIQ defined 160 key rectification regions for foods and 10 kinds of products and requested each of the provinces to carry out emblematical rectification. The local authorities also defined some key regions according to their own practical situation so as to break down the rectification tasks and work out specific schemes. In conjunction with the departments concerned, to concentrate the strength in carrying out rectification. At present, the regional quality problems have been rectified effectively.

IV. A series of long-term supervision measures have been established

The authorities of quality supervision, inspection and quarantine have intensified the long-term mechanism establishment under the requirement of carrying out rectification work while summarizing, standardizing and perfecting it. By adopting the measures such as establishing and perfecting enterprises quality records, signing quality and safety commitments, perfecting the basic production conditions as well as establishing supplying and selling records etc. intensified the industrial products and food supervision chain; established the industrial products and food quality tracing system and liability investigation system; through the application of product quality electronic supervision, established the associate-manager and supervisors teams, and the product quality supervision network mobilizing all circles of the society and participated actively by them has started to play the role.

V. The situation that the whole society attaching importance and showing concern to product quality and safety is come into being

The local areas have generally intensified the propaganda degree on the work of special rectification and quality safety. The role of major media such as TV and broadcasting station, newspaper and magazine has been given a full play. As a result, an integrated atmosphere of “the government emphasizes the quality, the enterprise seeks the quality, the society upholds the quality, and everyone concerns the quality” has formed.

VI . Established an effective system of international cooperation

During the period of special rectification, for the first time published a white paper entitled “China's food quality and safety”, through bilateral and multilateral cooperation mechanisms and channels, strengthened communication, increased mutual confidence, established and enlarged inter-governmental cooperation mechanism for quality and safety control, signed a series of agreements for the purpose of strengthening cooperation and mutual recognition, for instance the “Agreement on food and feed safety” between China and the United States.

By activities such as organized friends from foreign missions to China and overseas media to spot study and visits, held the high level international food safety forum jointly with the Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization, let countries of the world have a more authentic and objective understanding of the Chinese product quality and food safety.

Meanwhile, AQSIQ has undertaken the office work of the product quality and food safety leading group of the State Council, positively coordinated the various ministries in close collaboration and established the department co-action working mechanism. It can be said that the whole nation's special rectification action has reached its fore-set objective and has won delightful phase achievements. As for the next step, we would like to make persistent efforts, to further deepen the special rectification achievements so as to make our new contribution to ensuring product quality and food safety.

(China Development Gateway January 16, 2008)