China steps up measures to ensure farm produce safety

The Ministry of Agriculture is also focusing on food safety. Official stress that Chinese farm produce is generally safe for consumption. But they also say they're looking at more measures to target specific food safety problems.
Officials from the Ministry of Agriculture say stepped-up measures will focus on fishing produce and livestock.
Specifically, they will crack down on hard on practices such as making and selling banned pesticides as well as animal medicines. They will also set up punitive measures for firms or individuals found breaking the law.
Zhang Yuxiang, Dept. director Chinese Ministry of Agriculture, said, "We will also carry out measures to crack down on activities such as illegally producing and selling farming materials. We will enhance supervision of the production of green food and organic food. Inspections on agricultural production environments and farming produce market access procedures will also be reinforced."
Inspections carried out by the Ministry of Agriculture in April show that the proportion of farm produce able to meet quality standards has gone up slowly but steadily over the last few years. More than 97 percent of fishing and livestock produce have met stringent safety standards for the last three years.
According to China's Quality Inspection Administration, 99.1 percent of the food that China exports to the US in the first half of the year also met requisite standards. And for food exported to Europe and Japan, the figure was as high as 99.8 percent.
Japan carried out an inspection on all food imported into the country in 2006. 99.4 percent of the food from China was up to grade, higher than average quality levels, and also higher than those of food from the US and Europe.
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