Solve the problem of food safety by deepening the regulatory system and establishing a regulatory platform

At the 2016 (4th) China Food and Food Safety Strategy Summit, which was guided by the Development Research Center of the State Council and jointly sponsored by China Economic Yearbook Society and China Rural Research Institute of Tsinghua University, Yu Bin, member of the Party Group and Director of the General Office of the Development Research Center of the State Council, presided over the dialogue entitled "Building a Food Supervision System for Agricultural Products to Ensure" Safety on the Tongue ". Luo Yunbo, former dean of the School of Food Science and Nutrition Engineering of China Agricultural University, Ken Peterson, senior vice president of Ouxi Group, and Qiu Xipin, president of Dow Agricultural Asia, elaborated their main views around the theme of the dialogue.

Food safety supervision system needs to be improved urgently

Luo Yunbo, former dean of the School of Food Science and Nutrition Engineering of China Agricultural University, explained how to solve the food safety problem from the perspective of food safety supervision. He believed that only by solving the urgent problems to be solved in the food safety supervision system can the safety on the tip of the tongue be ensured. To this, he put forward four suggestions.

First, the food safety supervision system needs to deepen the coordination mechanism. Looking back on the reform of food and drug regulatory agencies in the past three years, the core problem is the allocation of regulatory power. Institutional consolidation over the past three years has reduced the number of regulators. However, the reduction of the number is not equal to the integration of functions. Although the supervision system covers many issues such as institutional setup and staffing, it is actually the collaborative operation of supervision resources.

Therefore, the problems brought about by the above-mentioned institutional reforms can only be solved through deepening reforms and coordinating mechanisms. It includes vertical coordination between central and local governments, as well as horizontal coordination among local departments. Dividing financial power according to administrative power and dividing territorial responsibility on the basis of clarifying administrative power is an urgent problem to be solved at present and in the future.

Second, the issue of food safety standards needs to be resolved urgently. Pesticide problem is the most concerned problem of consumers and must be treated as a priority. First of all, environmental protection should be regarded as the core content of agricultural subsidy policy, imitating EU's price subsidy policy for agricultural products, establishing an agricultural subsidy policy system with environmental protection as the core, and taking agricultural scientific use and heavy metal pollution prevention as important parameters in the system. Secondly, for chemical pesticides, low toxicity and low price, high toxicity and high price will increase farmers 'use cost and reduce their desire to buy and use. For the production of low toxicity and high efficiency pesticide enterprises to implement tax reduction or financial subsidies, for highly toxic pesticide manufacturers to "de-subsidy", substantially increase taxes, reduce their willingness to produce.

Third, it is of great significance to implement the food safety strategy and build a strict, efficient and socially co-managed food safety system. This is a good format for the regulatory system, but the reality is that both the government and the media have unrealistic expectations for the current regulatory system. It is unrealistic to ask for zero risk in food quality when the problem of food quantity has not been solved. In a high-pressure environment of excessive expectations, it can backfire. Only by starting from the regulators themselves, throwing away unrealistic goals, judging the situation rationally, and lowering the social expectations of all sectors of society for the regulatory system can we steadily move towards victory.

Fourth, the food safety regulatory system urgently needs to standardize disharmonious practices. The supervision of the third party should also have laws to abide by and cannot be done arbitrarily. At present, the Internet is full of fake eggs, fake cabbage, fake walnuts and other false information, coupled with bad media hype, network spoofing, national ridicule, so that Chinese food in the tide, self-abuse, self-destruction in the notoriety. Even officials of the World Health Organization couldn't stand this situation and earnestly suggested that Chinese food should not be regarded as the source of all things. If these false information is allowed to spread, it will cause great difficulties to food safety supervision. We hope to standardize the supervision of the third party as soon as possible and stop the network rumors.

Food safety should be result-oriented and focus on prevention

Ken Peterson, Senior Vice President of Oxi Group, introduced his views and suggestions on China's food standards from the aspect of food safety standard formulation to the participants.

In his view, China's latest revised Food Safety Law has been implemented for more than a year and has entered the most difficult stage, which needs to be further strengthened in terms of implementation. And China's Food Safety Law covers all food categories, which is very commendable. Because food safety in the United States is regulated by multiple departments according to categories, sometimes the effect is not good.

He said that the international standard for food safety is the International Food Code, which has three broad standards that can provide experience for China in improving food standards.

First, legislation must be enacted to enforce food safety. With the support of relevant laws, the government, localities and enterprises can jointly implement and implement food safety standards. Second, there must be an appropriate implementation plan. The government cannot make policy out of thin air. It is necessary to design in advance according to the actual situation, and at the same time, it is necessary to have effective implementation and detection in order to achieve the goal of reducing diseases and realizing public health. Third, the working methods should be scientific. For example, in the detection and analysis of pests and diseases, the working methods adopted should have scientific standards. These three principles constitute the basic framework of the Codex Alimentarius and are the basis of the food regulatory system.

However, he also pointed out that the most important focus in solving food safety problems should be on prevention. At present, all countries have relatively mature food crisis response mechanisms, but the most important thing is prevention. By looking only at results, businesses will have time to adjust flexibly and fit the rules. Therefore, it is hoped that China's supervision will be result-oriented and attach great importance to the food production process.

Finally, he gave some suggestions on accountability mechanisms and responsibility identification. He believes that China's current national level power for food supervision is the State Food and Drug Administration, but hopes to give more power to the local level to form a supervision framework supervised by the state and implemented by local governments. At the same time, enterprises also need to actively implement standards in the production process, rather than under the pressure of supervision. All employees in the food industry should have a sense of shared responsibility.

It is essential to establish a comprehensive food regulatory platform

Qiu Xipin, president of Dow Agricultural Asia, said in his dialogue speech that food security is not only a hot topic in China, but also internationally. China has made a lot of progress in this regard in recent years. The focus now is not only on ensuring food supply, but also on food security. In other words, China's grain has entered a stage of paying equal attention to quantity and quality.

In his view, this means that people have more demand for high-quality and nutritious food. Therefore, China's regulatory system needs to be adjusted throughout the food ecosystem industry chain to ensure real food safety in China.

However, he is pleased that China has made great progress in food regulation, such as the newly revised Food Safety Law last year, which covers the entire food production chain from production, storage to distribution. Moreover, the State Food and Drug Administration, as the agency in charge of food safety supervision and control, has done a lot of work. On this basis, China has not only formulated standards to promote food and drug safety, but also formulated standards for animal and plant safety that meet relevant WTO requirements.

In his speech, he also put forward three suggestions for China's food supervision. First, science must underpin the entire regulatory regime. That is, a comprehensive and effective food regulatory system should be based on scientific research, with predictability, transparency and scientific basis for decisions at all stages of the food value chain.

Second, there needs to be extensive interaction between government, academia, and business to achieve truly good regulation.