The lack of related laws is another problem that prevents effective food-safety supervision. The only effective law on food safety is the Food Hygiene Law that took effect in 1995. But three limitations prevent the law from being useful, Zhang said. First, its scope is too narrow. The law fails to cover the whole food-production process from field to dining table. Supervision is confined only to final food products with no regulations on planting methods, aquatic breeding, animal or poultry farming, food storage or the regulation of production and use of food additives, foodstuffs and foodstuff additives. This has created a loophole and a blind zone for food safety supervision.

Second, the overlapping administration on food safety came about after the Food Hygiene Law took effect, creating the dramatic inconsistency between law and reality. Furthermore, regulations on legal responsibilities in related laws are vague. For example, the law has no provision for the legal responsibility of related government departments in food-safety accidents.

Gauging risk

Chen Junshi, a food-safety expert from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said if the draft Food Safety Law was adopted, the old Food Hygiene Law would be abolished. According to the draft law, the government will step up food-safety schemes at all stages of production, processing, packaging, transportation and storage. The monitoring, warning and appraisal functions of food-testing agencies will be enhanced, and a food-safety risk warning and response system will be set up. The testing of pesticide and cattle medicine residues, harmful microorganisms and additives will be upgraded. And food quality and safety appraisal capacity during production, processing, transportation and consumption will be enhanced. The draft law also requires the establishment of systems to regulate food production, record food-safety examinations, label food with production information, and recall unsafe food. The draft law also metes out more severe punishments for producers of substandard food.

According to legal experts who wrote the draft law, the formulation of provisions has referred to food-safety standards in other countries and set up schemes for appraising the danger of unsafe food. The new law also has broadened the scope of food safety and provided more legal means to conduct food-safety supervision.

Challenges ahead

Zhang has high expectations for the draft law to improve China's food-safety record, and especially reduce the occurrence of major accidents. But he and Chen also said one of the draft law's weaknesses is its failure to rectify the overlapping administrations in the supervision of food safety.

Reforming the food-safety administration system will face enormous pressure, because it would harm the interests and powers of certain departments. Zhang suggests that China should explore a new management model of dividing foods into different categories that would fall under the supervision of different departments, as a supplement to the current phase-based monitoring system. Two departments could share the monitoring of similar foods while phase-based monitoring could be conducted based on information sharing between different departments, he said.

On April 17, the State Council said it wanted to establish the basic food-safety monitoring system by 2010. The system will mandate that all major food-safety incidents be investigated. It also will set up spot checks for fresh agricultural products that will cover 95 percent of the country's markets in large and medium-sized cities, large outdoor markets and supermarket chains. It also will ensure that the food-safety monitoring network covers 90 percent of food consumers.