Beijing to introduce new food safety rules

[Soldier4Christ]

Beijing to introduce new food safety rules 
Requires food companies to take back products posing health risk

China is to introduce new rules requiring food companies to take back products found to pose a health risk, state press reported on Tuesday, after a spate of safety scares.

The move follows the poisoning of thousands of animals in the United States from pet food additives made in China, one of a series of incidents that have laid bare lax controls in Beijing's food quality control system.

The China Daily newspaper said the new rules would be introduced by year-end.

Wu Jianping, a top official with China's quality-control watchdog, told the paper they would apply to both domestic and foreign companies and would be in line with international practices.

"Implementing the recall system for all food products will be a gradual process," said Wu, a director general with the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine.

Li Yuanping, another director-general with the administration, warned foreign businesses not to import Chinese food products that did not have proper export approvals.

"It is these illegal products that have tarnished the reputation of all Chinese food products," Li told the paper.

Li said some countries such as the US did not require that imported products come from officially-registered plants accompanied by official certifications.

The paper also reported that the State
Food and Drug Administration plans to blacklist food producers that break rules, barring serious violators from the market.

China has announced previous food-safety crackdowns, most notably in 2004 when 13 babies died and hundreds suffered from malnutrition after being fed baby formula that contained no nutrients.

However, problems have persisted and experts have said the systems overseeing China's sprawling food products industries need a major overhaul.

[Brother Jerry]

This is more of the hole we have dug ourselves into in this country.  We have become so dependent not only on products but also financially on China that they could literally put us into such a recession that we would never recover.  And we have allowed this.

[Soldier4Christ]

I would say that we are already in a recession although the "experts" say that we are not. I would also say that China could do much worse and force us into a depression.

[Faithin1]

I agree with you brothers.  It was a HUGE mistake to trust China.