EU and China Cooperate on Food Safety Regulation, High-level Seminar held on Certification of Imported Food Products
A high-level international food safety seminar was held in Beijing on Thursday, 6 April, on the theme of “certification of imported food products”. The seminar examined how certification can be used as a tool to control risks and prevent food fraud, as well as the role of certification in the international trade of food. Participants at the seminar were able to explore how certification is used to benefit consumers in both the People’s Republic of China and in the European Union Member States.
Mr Bi Kexin, Director General of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of the PRC (AQSIQ) spoke at the event, along with Ms Awilo Ochieng Pernet, the Chairperson of the Codex Alimentarius Commission, an intergovernmental body responsible for setting international food standards, and Mr Michael Scannell, the European Commission’s Director of Food Chain: Stakeholders and International Relations in the Directorate General for Health and Food Safety.
The seminar was followed by bilateral discussions on certification between AQSIQ and the European Commission.
After the event, Mr Jérôme Lepeintre, Minister-Counsellor for Health and Food Safety at the Delegation of the European Union to China and Mongolia, stated “China is making incredible progress in enhancing food safety, and this seminar was an ideal opportunity to discuss the role that certification plays in protecting Chinese consumers and preventing food fraud.”
Food safety certification and the global food trade
The European Union is the largest agri-food exporter in the world, with exports reaching a record €129.9 billion (935.3 billion RMB) between September 2015 and October 2016. China is the fastest-growing market for EU food products, with a 39% annual growth rate in 2015. EU agri-food exports to China were worth over €10 billion (72 billion RMB) in 2015, meaning that China is already the second-largest market for European food after the USA. Food safety is a priority for consumers in both the European Union and in China, and certification is one tool used by governments to control food safety risks and fight food fraud.
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When high risk food products (normally perishable foods such as meat or dairy) are certified, consumers can trust that the product has been produced to a particular standard. Certification also helps regulators to identify when a sub-standard product is on the market, and new technologies are making this process faster and more effective.
Since governments around the world are increasingly using certification systems, it’s important that certification is reserved for products with a significant level of risk following a risk analysis approach in order to avoid that precious control resources are wasted on products which a low level of risk.
EU-China Cooperation on Food Safety Regulation
The seminar was held as part of the “EU-China Cooperation on Food Safety Regulation” project, an EU-funded project that encourages regulatory dialogue and the sharing of international best practices by bringing together representatives of the EU, EU Member States and European industry with key figures from the PRC regulatory agencies, including AQSIQ, the China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA) and the National Health and Family Planning Commission (NHFPC). Three further seminars are planned to take place over the next 18 months, along with two study visits to the European Union involving senior PRC officials.