"Now I buy food at supermarkets, rather than open-air markets
and small stores before," said Ms. Liu while shopping at a
supercenter in Haidian District of Beijing.
"I often wonder what food remains safe," she added, refusing to
give her full name.
Her concern is echoed by a majority of Chinese people. An
earlier survey by the State Food and Drug Administration showed 65
percent of the respondents worried about food safety situation in
China.
"The concerns reflect their dissatisfaction with government
performance on food safety checking. Food security is vital to
building a harmonious society," said Lu Jianzhong, a member of the
National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative
Conference (CPPCC), the top political advisory body.
Last year China experienced a string of food safety problems including steroid-tainted
pork, parasite-infested snails, turbots that contain excessive
amount of carcinogens, ducks and hens that were fed cancer-causing
Sudan Red dye to make their egg yolks red.
Advisor Ren Qixing appealed for the set-up of a unified
"farmland to kitchen" food safety supervision mechanism in a bid to
tackle the current segmented and lax government checking mainly
blamed for the frequent food safety scares in the country.
Ren, chairman of the CPPCC's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Regional Committee in
northwest China, said the supervision system should cover the whole
process of food production, rather than on the finished food
products alone.
Ren added that half a dozen government departments are
responsible for food safety in China. "As a result, they often have
supervision loopholes and don't have to worry about being held
accountable for food safety scares," Ren said.
Another advisor Ren Yuling noted the punishment of large-scale
food safety accidents should be far more severe. "Slack punishment
is often impossible to deter the people involved in the food safety
scares."
The fifth session of the Tenth CPPCC National Committee kicks
off on March 3 and will end on March 15.
(Xinhua News Agency March 3, 2007)