Global Insights Into Essential Elements Food Safety: The Chinese Example

ABSTRACT

This article brings together insights on the global challenges of achieving a safe food system. Through looking at examples of food safety initiatives, relevant success factors are identified and then distilled into five essential elements for developing a robust and safe food system. While much of the work in this area looks at government initiatives, this article looks particularly at industry-led initiatives. The article includes a brief look at the importance of food in Chinese culture and the current structure of the Chinese food chain. Specific initiatives from other markets are reviewed, and the five elements are outlined.

KEYWORDS:

• China
• food chain
• food safety

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to recognize the invaluable contributions made by a number of people and thank them for their feedback during the writing process:

David Byrne, former EU commissioner for European Food

Patrick Wall, Associate Professor of Public Health, UCD, Ireland

Mark Lyons, VP International projects, Alltech, Inc.

Michael Woolsey, regulatory manager, Alltech China

Notes

¹ http://www.cdc.gov/foodborneburden/.

² http://cn.nytimes.com/opinion/20120821/c21huang/en-us/.

³ http://newsletter.sgs.com/eNewsletterPro/uploadedimages/000006/sgs-cts-consumer-compact-v7-en-may-2012.pdf.

⁴ http://www.fao.org/3/a-i3944e.pdf.

⁵ file:///Users/kpcetal/Downloads/developing-and-implementing-national-food–main-english-final.pdf.

⁶ Swen Neufelt, Vice-President Hormel Foods International.