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Food safety concerns on the rise in China

Tom Abke

Chinese food consumption patterns are changing, reflecting a shift from concerns over basic food security to what is safe to eat and drink. Although China’s foreign investments and trade are being affected, opportunities are also being created for food industry players active in China, experts say

For example, the 2008 milk scandal saw more than 50,000 Chinese babies hospitalized after consuming tainted infant formula. The trauma motivated Chinese citizens to travel to destinations ranging from Hong Kong to Germany to bring home quantities of infant formula powder, according to Andrew Scobell, China analyst at the Rand Corp.

“Chinese consumers trust imported food products more that those made in China,” Scobell said. “This stems from the milk scandal and a number of other incidents involving tainted and infected food as a result of heavy pesticide use, polluted soil and nonfood-grade contaminants entering the supply chain.”

Nearly three-quarters of all Chinese people consider food safety a “big problem,” according to data from the Pew Research Center.

Prompted by scandal and alarming reports from its own investigators, the Chinese government streamlined its food monitoring and enacted a revised food safety law in 2015. It applies to all entities engaged in food production and processing, storage, transportation and handling, and clarifies their accountability, specifying responsibilities for government organizations monitoring the industry and enforcing the law.

The scale and complexity of China’s food industry makes implementing the regulations of the law an enormous challenge, said Scobell, who lived for many years in China and continues to make regular visits. He added that the loosely monitored industrial processes used in China for food production pose ongoing health risks.

“They are doing what big agriculture does in [the] U.S., only on a much larger scale,” Scobell said of China, which produces 50 million metric tons of pork per year. “The result is swine flu, avian flu and other infections, increasingly resistant to antibiotics. Once there’s an outbreak, it can spread like wildfire. Outbreaks will likely be on the rise.”

To facilitate food imports, Chinese corporations have purchased foreign food producers in recent years such as U.S. pork producer Smithfield Farms and made large foreign investments, including U.S. $250 million for nearly 20,000 hectares of land and infrastructure in Mozambique to grow rice and corn.

Consumer demand for safe food has also created opportunities for foreign firms active in China’s food industry by introducing technology and rigor into the monitoring process.

Since sales of tainted donkey meat scandalized Walmart’s China stores in 2014, the U.S. retailer has invested U.S. $50 million at its 433 outlets there, in food inspectors and mobile testing labs, according to Reuters.

Switzerland-based testing and certification giant SGS, meanwhile, is lobbying the Chinese government to adopt European standard monitoring of its entire food supply chain, the company reported.

“Chinese in the business of monitoring, testing and certifying foods, as well as food importers, along with foreign restaurant chains, can benefit from food safety concerns,” Scobell said. “Say what you will about McDonald’s, it has raised the standards of food safety, certainly in the eyes of Chinese consumers. Exposure to higher standards from abroad with foreign food options makes Chinese consumers more sophisticated and selective. This pressures domestic purveyors to up their game.”

Tom Abke is a freelance contributor to FORUM. He reported on this article from Singapore.

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