The food safety authorities in China will strengthen routine monitoring and special testing of farm produce and the ingredients employed in their production.

Chinese Agriculture Minister, Sun Zhengcai, reported on January 22, 2007 to Xinhua News Agency that the food safety officials of China would beef up the monitoring of produce safety, specifically aquatic products and fresh vegetables at production sites, supermarkets and wholesale markets. Their focus will be on animal medicines, pesticides, fertilizers and feed additives banned or limited in applications.

Recent incidences of food safety issues include turbot and mandarin fish, and hens and ducks that were given cancer-inducing Sudan Red dye to impart red color to their egg yolks. Sun informed that if conditions allowed, agricultural officials above country level would send quality inspectors to produce wholesale markets.

He also commanded agricultural authorities to start environmental safety assessments and inspection of produce production sites, introduce ‘quality safety inspectors’ for the improvement of business production, and employ a labeling system for GM (Genetically Modified) food and milk.

A report by Asian Development Bank recently bitterly criticized food safety supervision system of China and said that the system requires urgent reform.

The report stated that unsafe food is a threat to public health and would also influence the farmers’ income and China’s trade. It informed that the State Administration of Food and Medicine of China has made huge efforts to improve the condition but China is short of comprehensive regulations on food safety.

According to the RNCOS research report "Food Processing Market in China (2005)”, food-related diseases continue to be a threat for general masses and public health authorities. It has encouraged the concerned authorities to gain knowledge of the food control standards and regulations in other countries.