Stricter Food Safety Law Stimulates the Demand for Food Safety Products in China
China’s food safety remains a serious concern. According to the Ministry of Health, 48 people died and 3,063 people fell ill because of food poisoning throughout China between April and June 2009. The numbers of poisoning cases and associated fatalities climbed steeply during the second quarter.
A new food safety regulation issued by the State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) on Aug 14, 2009 requires Chinese food and drug regulators d to report food accidents to their superiors and local health authorities within six hours. It also demands that once incidents occur involving 30 or more people, food and drug regulators at or above the county level should report them to their superiors and local health authorities within six hours. The SFDA also requires food and drug regulators at all levels to formulate emergency response procedures to deal with food accidents based on local conditions.
The new food safety law introduced by the Chinese government in June 2009 has led to an increase demand in food safety products, such as disinfection products, diagnostic testing products, and tracking products, by the food and beverage output industry. Demand for food safety products in China is expected to increase 15% per annum through 2013 to ¥13.0 billion.
Despite governments’ effort, to date, the food safety initiatives in the China market have been limited in focus. No forum has yet been organized to address industry certification or extensive training for consumer groups and for medium as well as large-scale business enterprises.
As a result of the Food Safety Roundtable hosted by GIC Group in April, 2009 in Beijing, participants from major sectors of the global food chain agreed to forge a mandate for action to advance food safety and facilitate business and trade. GIC Group has been working with a group of multinational companies to develop an industry-run GFSF (Global Food Safety Forum) for training, certification, and quality control. |
