4
09
2008
The China State Council has approved the implementation of the Ministry of Health to take over all the duties of the State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA), the South China Morning Post reported on Monday. The Ministry of Health will now become the sole supervisor for food, public health and pharmaceuticals.
The move supposedly is to bolster safety and eliminate corruption and bribery (former head of SFDA Zheng XiaoYu was executed last July 2007 for taking bribes).
It is not clear at this time what implications, if any, this will have on Chinese exporters of frozen foods. Will the MOH have the staff to monitor and regulate food safety? Will it lead to more corruption? Time will tell.
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Categories : China, Food Safety
31
08
2008
Workers sorting and weighing individual items for mixed vegetables.
Looking down the human assembly line.
Mixed vegetables prior to being inserted into finished polybag.
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Categories : General Trading, China
11
08
2008
The Plot Thickens
Chinese authorities have admitted that 4 people have suffered food poisoning from China made gyoza with similar symptoms to those poisoned earlier this year in Japan from China made gyoza.
Click here to read the article.
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Categories : Food Products, China, Health
29
07
2008
China Men’s Washroom - ChangAn reststop between Shanghai and Hangzhou
While driving from Shanghai to Hangzhou we made a pit stop at ChangAn to relieve ourselves. The photos below are from the men’s washroom. I was blown away by the urinal (trough). As you can see by the photos it was is encased in glass with artificial trees and waterfall.
(Click photos to get enlarged view.)
Wow, isn’t this beautiful and serene??
Bird’s eye view of the stainless steal trough. Water flowing down the glass enjoying the waterfall and smelling the roses!!
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Categories : China
14
07
2008
China soybeans (Edamame) from Zhejiang province have been severely damaged by close to 25 days of rain. As a result many of the soy pods have no kernals and those that do have kernals are smaller than normal. The outer skin is blemished more so then normal because of the rains which makes them of little value for the primary market of Edamame for Japan. Some of the pods have an off odor from the excess of rains. The yields from the raw material are running around 45% vs the normal of 65%. As a result of the reduced yields all the packers are bidding on a smaller quantity of raw material driving the price up. As a result of the higher price for the Edamame it is also having a negative impact on the shelled soybeans or Mukimame. Mukimame is the primary import to the USA because of its lower cost point and this item being a by-product of the Edamame.
Little relief is expected in pricing because Fujian province, the other major producer, also experienced a 50% shortfall for the summer crop. Prices are expected to remain firm until autumn crop.
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Categories : General Trading, China
26
06
2008
The United States and China are making progress on cooperation on food and feed import safety, according to a joint update by both nations following economic talks in Annapolis, Md., last week.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection, and Quarantine have set up designated points of contact, emergency contacts, thresholds for notification, enhanced information exchange and studied each other’s regulatory system to better react to health dangers in Chinese supplied food products.
Last December, the two agencies signed a memorandum of understanding to provide greater information and quality assurances to improve the safety of food traded between the two countries.
Work is continuing on development of a system under which AQSIQ will electronically certify to FDA that specific products sent for export to the United States meet FDA standards for safety and manufacturing quality.
The FDA has also agreed to train Chinese officials on U.S. regulatory standards and requirements.
The governments have also agreed to share information to assist investigations of fraud or deception by food suppliers.
contributed by Alan Davis, adavis@sspllc.com
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Categories : China, Food Safety
20
06
2008
China government announced that effective today June 20 they will impose an increase in the price of gasoline of 17.8% and electric power of 4.7%.
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Categories : China
17
06
2008
China has been plagued by the worst winter snow storm in years, earthquakes, and now the heaviest rain in some areas in over 100 years. Thus far more then 1.7 million people have been evacuated. Read the following story by clicking here.
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Categories : China
1
05
2008
Nearly 5000 comments have been received on the China food safety draft law.
Some of the key comments:
- Citizens in favor and feel this is a “putting people first” law.
- Tighter controls of procedures recommended.
- Clarifying food safety responsibilities.
- Establish uniform standards.
- Improve monitoring of small food processors.
- Food definition should include water, edible oils, beverages, produce and meat.
- Designate a single entity or department instead of many to monitor food safety regulations.
Read the full article from China View here.
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Categories : China, Food Safety
25
04
2008
Just recently I asked a friend of my in the China frozen food business about the new proposed draft law that is up for public comment. Below are their remarks which I find very interesting and shed light from a Chinese persons perspective.
As far as I see, Chinese Food Safety Law is mainly for domestic food safety control. I mean, that actually our exporting factories have been implementing much higher standard than the proposed draft law, long time ago. I think the highlight of the draft is the punishment for the producer of substandard food, they may face prison of up to lifetime in serious cases. Also the recall of un-safe food. However the draft only mentions very roughly about the recall. The detailed procedure has to be completed later after the Food safety law officially comes to effect. So I can not see what big changes to exporting factories yet. The only thing for sure is that China will control food safety more and more strict.
China always has the problem of too many supervising departments while the responsibilties for these departments are not so clear. Some times all departments controls one thing and some times no one controls because they think other department should contol. It happened before that one application has to be approved by over 80 persons(80 stamps finally actually showed on the application). The losing control situation has been taken advantages of by some bad guys and they do harmful things. Things are getting changed step by step. Hopefully a more reasonable and effective system will be established and we will live in a better environment.
The above are my personal views only.
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Categories : General Trading, China
