U.S.House of Representatives Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.“Food from China: Can We Import Safely?” Staff Trip Report. October 4,2007. 2.
Itwould appear that the Chinese food supply chain does not meetinternational safety standards. It is, in fact, responsible for veryserious domestic Chinese food poisoning outbreaks. The ChineseGovernment appears determined to avoid embarrassing food safetyoutbreaks in export markets due to the damaging and potentially lastingeffect this would have upon their “Made in China” branding. The lack ofmeaningful internal regulation of farming and food processing in China,the advanced development of the document counterfeiting industry, andthe willingness of some entrepreneurs in both China and the UnitedStates to smuggle foodstuffs that do meet quality standards,necessitates a much more vigorous program of inspection and laboratorytesting in China and at U.S. ports of entry than the Food and DrugAdministration (FDA) has been able or willing to pursue to date.
Chinais a large and rapidly growing source of food for the Americanconsumer, but it is not the largest source of imports from thedeveloping world—that honor belongs to Mexico. India’s food itemimports are rejected as unfit for human consumption at our borders moreoften than Chinese imports. Moreover, the most serious outbreaks ofhuman food poisoning cases in America last year originated within theUnited States.
中国食品安全监管无力的一个原因:鞭长莫及
企业规模中中小型企业过多,另外还有家庭作坊等模式的存在,即便地方政府的监管对此也无法到位
Committeestaff was told that there are now hundreds of millions of privatefarms, many no larger than a basketball court. Food produced in a localarea is gathered by “factors”—or intermediaries—and funneled into aprocessing industry that is also largely composed of very small,family-based operations. The Chinese Government has minimal ability,even at the local level, to monitor food production activities in orderto ensure product safety.
Ina system where a crop’s failure is catastrophic for a farmer’s economicsurvival, it is understandable that a farmer’s priority would not be toensure that the agricultural chemicals used are without safety orhealth consequences, even if the farmer is aware of the adverse healthconsequences. Similarly, when outside forces place steady downwardpressure on prices, to discover that a chemical such as melamine hadbeen added during processing to artificially inflate the proteincontent levels of wheat gluten or animal feed, should not come as asurprise.
农业部就农产品监管的利益冲突性:中国农业部即负责农产品的生产同时也要确保农产品的质量
TheMinistry of Agriculture establishes the standards for Chinese farms tomeet for control of both chemical residues and pathogens.Domestically,the Ministry of Agriculture is responsible for farm produce andlivestock throughout the chain
Anotherexplained that local authorities report to the local Communist Party,not to Beijing, and that economic growth is the first priority of theParty. Clearly, the economic problems of the rural areas of China areof such a magnitude that even if the Party did not have as a goal suchgrowth, it would still be the most logical priority