China’s Food Safety Regulatory System:
Achievements, Challenges and Suggestions
Jiehong Zhou
China Academy for Rural Development, Zhejiang University
2019/10/30

Outline
I. China’s Food Safety Achievements
II. China’s Food Safety Regulatory System Reform
III. Current Food Safety Challenges
IV. Suggestions for China’s Food Safety Supervision

I. China’s Food Safety Achievements
1. Food qualification rate
77.90%
85.50% 87.40%
91.10%
96.90%
96.40%
95.40%
96.10%
94.70%
96.80%
96.80%
97.60%
97.70%
70.00%
75.00%
80.00%
85.00%
90.00%
95.00%
100.00%
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
Foodqualificationrate(%)
Year
Source: Annual Report of China’s Food Safety (Published by Food Safety Risk Research Institution of Jiangnan University)
Figure 1. Trend of food qualification rate

I. China’s Food Safety Achievements
2. Food sampling tests
198961 191672
370298
738972
306183
342594
624423
1090880
432709
525258
965727
1432188
428043
635151
0
200000
400000
600000
800000
1000000
1200000
1400000
1600000
Numofsamplingtests
Year - Quarter
Source: Quarterly Report of Food Sampling Tests (Based on announcements from SAMR and CFDA websites)
Figure 2. Trend of food sampling tests

Figure 3. Trend of overall public satisfaction rate
I. China’s Food Safety Achievements
3. Public satisfaction rate
64.26%
52.12%
54.55%
58.03%
60.80%
40.00%
45.00%
50.00%
55.00%
60.00%
65.00%
70.00%
2012 2014 2016 2017 2018
Publicsatisfactionrate(%)
Year
Source: Annual Report of China’s Food Safety (Published by Food Safety Risk Research Institution of Jiangnan University)

I. China’s Food Safety Achievements
3. Public satisfaction rate
Source: Provincial government websites
82.30%
78.70%
86.50% 86.70% 87%
64.43%
67.38%
70.32%
76.28%
81.37%
50.00%
55.00%
60.00%
65.00%
70.00%
75.00%
80.00%
85.00%
90.00%
2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
Publicsatisfactionrate(%)
Year
北京市 上海市 浙江省 江苏省 广东省Beijing Shanghai Zhejiang Jiangsu Guangdong
Figure 4. Public satisfaction rate in five representative provinces

I. China’s Food Safety Achievements
4. Fiscal inputs for China’s Supervision on Food Safety
(1) Fiscal budget for fundamental construction (food safety related)
Source: The 13th Five-Year National Food Safety Program, The 12th Five-Year Plan of National Food Safety Regulatory System
Central investment for
fundamental construction
(billion)
Num of regulatory sites
for food pollutants and
other harmful factors
Num of sentinel hospital
for foodborne disease
surveillance
The 11th Five-Year
(2006-2010)
5.51 320 312
The 12th Five-Year
(2011-2015)
18.45 2656 3883
Table 1. Fiscal budget for fundamental construction (food safety related)
3.4 times 8.3 times 12.4 times

I. China’s Food Safety Achievements
4. Fiscal inputs for China’s Supervision on Food Safety
(2) Fiscal allocation for food safety affairs disposal
Source: Final Allocation of General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (replaced to SAMR since 2018)
Figure 5. Fiscal allocation for food safety affairs disposal
756061.19
817939.26
1033510.26
974645.48
1021180.52
1072610.08
1103442.07
1063693.43
1206181.48
500000
600000
700000
800000
900000
1000000
1100000
1200000
1300000
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
Fiscalallocation(10,000yuan)
Year

II. China’s Food Safety Regulatory System Reform
Decentralized regulatory system dominated by food industry departments
• Economy Environment
• Planned economy: government-enterprise mixture
• Food Safety Issues & Drivers
• Issues: Food poisoning
• Drivers: Technique limitation; Lack of knowledge and management skills
• Important Events
• The Trial Regulation on Food Hygiene Management (1965)
• Regulatory Departments & Functions
• Food industry departments (dominant)
• Department of light industry, commerce, domestic trade and chemical industry
• Appointment and dismissal, education and self-criticism, quality competition, etc.
• The health department (supplementary)
• Technique guidance
2018 - now2013 - 20172003 - 20121978 - 20021949 - 1977

II. China’s Food Safety Regulatory System Reform
Unitary regulatory system dominated by the hygiene department
• Economy Environment
• Planned economy → Commodity economy
• Government-Enterprise Mixture → Government-Enterprise Separation
• Food Safety Issues & Drivers
• Issues: Food Poisoning → All foodborne diseases
• Drivers: Objective factors → Subjective factors (profits)
• Important Events
• The Regulations on the Management of Food Hygiene (1979)
• The Food Hygiene Law (For Trial Implementation) (1982)
• The Food Hygiene Law (1995)
• Regulatory Departments & Functions
• The health department
• Administrative enforcement
• Economic sanctions
• Judicial arbitration
2018 - now2013 - 20172003 - 20121949 - 1977 1978 - 2002

II. China’s Food Safety Regulatory System Reform
Segmented regulatory system dominated by multiple departments
• Important Events
• Establishment of Food and Drug Administration (2003)
• The State Council: Segmented supervision based on food supply chain stages (2004)
• Food and Drug Administration was merged into the Mistry of Health (2008)
• The Food Hygiene Law (1995) → The Food Safety Law (2009)
• Regulatory Departments & Functions
• Ministry of Agriculture
• Supervision on agri-food production (upstream)
• General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine
• Supervision on food processing (midstream)
• State Administration for Industry and Commerce
• Supervision on food circulation (midstream)
• Mistry of Health
• Supervision on food consumption (downstream)
2018 - now2013 - 20171978 - 20021949 - 1977 2003 - 2012

II. China’s Food Safety Regulatory System Reform
Integrated regulatory system dominated by the joint department
• Important Events
• Establishment of China Food and Drug Administration (2013)
• Regulatory Departments & Functions
• State-level
2003 - 2012 2018 - now2013 - 20171978 - 20021949 - 1977
2003-2012 → 2013-2017
Food and Drug Administration Whole
China Food and
Drug Administration
State Administration for Industry and Commerce Functions about
food safety
supervision
General Administration of Quality Supervision,
Inspection and Quarantine
Office of National Security Commission Whole

II. China’s Food Safety Regulatory System Reform
Integrated regulatory system dominated by the joint department
• Regulatory Departments & Functions
• Provincial-level
• Local-level
• Established Market Regulation Administration
• More departments being merged into one
2003 - 2012 2018 - now2013 - 20171978 - 20021949 - 1977
2003-2012 → 2013-2017
Food and Drug Administration Whole
Food and Drug
Administration
Administration for Industry and Commerce Functions about
food safety
supervisionBureau of Quality and Technical Supervision

II. China’s Food Safety Regulatory System Reform
Period of modernized governance
• Important Events
• Institution Reform (2018)
• Regulatory Department
State Administration for Industry and Commerce
General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine
China Food and Drug Administration
→ State Administration for Market Regulation
(cover all food supply chain except agri-food production)
• Objectives
• Vertical: achieving central-local consistence and coordination
• Horizontal:
• Setting duties and rights for each department scientifically
• Promoting joint enforcement
2013 - 20172003 - 2012 2018 - now1978 - 20021949 - 1977

III. Current Food Safety Challenges
1. Challenges on Food Industry
(1) Internal: relatively lower industry concentration
(2) External: e-commercial (Internet) shock
• 305 million people using food take-out service (2017)
• Higher failure rate of take-out food than overall food
Country
% of large-
scale food
enterprises
Required turnover for
a large-scale food
enterprise (yuan)
% of total food industry
turnover occupied by
large-scale food enterprises
China 0.32 ≥ 20 million 23.00
South Korea 0.77 ≥ 18.5 million 63.83
The United Kingdom 0.41 ≥ 4.57 billion 84.18
The United States of
America
Top 20 / Around 40
Top 50 / Over 50
Source: National Bureau of Statistics (2017); Official statistic websites of Korea, UK, USA (2017)

III. Current Food Safety Challenges
2. Challenges on Food Safety Regulatory Departments
(1) Within one region
• Incomplete communication and information sharing mechanism
• Lack of unified process standard
(2) Cross different regions
• Independent demand of interests/benefits
• Lack of cooperative mechanism with a same goal
Food safety
supervision
departments
in Region A
Office 1
(Function 1)
Office 2
(Function 2)
Office 3
(Function 3)
…
？
？
Food safety
supervision
departments
in Region A
Food safety
supervision
departments
in Region B
Same goal?

III. Current Food Safety Challenges
3. Challenges on Food Risk Evaluation and Warning
• Lack of data mining
E.g. collection, processing, storage, analysis
• Unable to achieve information sharing
• Lack of information platform, transmission mechanism
4. Challenges on Food Safety Comprehensive Governance
• Lack communication with publics about food risk
→ People lack of trust for government
• Weak self-control of food enterprises
→ Limited market power
• Improper food industry standard
→ Food industry standards are not scientific enough to promote

IV. Suggestions for China’s Food Safety Supervision
1. Reinforce process integration and regional coordination
• Internal: “production-processing-circulation-consumption” integration
• External: “Province-Prefecture-County” consistence; cross-provincial coordination
2. Adopt new regulatory techniques
• New techniques: AI, blockchain, machine learning, etc.
• Establish big data center and food risk warning platform
3. Improve risk-control mechanism
• Allocate regulatory resources to food production (upstream) and circulation
(midstream)
• Strengthen food inspection and traceability of wholesale/wet markets
• Design specific governance mechanism for online platforms, especially for take-out food
4. Promote communication between government and publics
• Insist transparent supervision: share information about food risks and test results
• Publicize food safety knowledge, improve people’s trust and confidence

IV. Suggestions for China’s Food Safety Supervision
5. Promote Social Co-governance
• Establish enterprise credit information system on food safety
• Suggest large-scale food enterprises adopt HACCP, self-inspection, etc.
• Involve publics (consumer, social media, etc.) into regulatory system
6. Adjust food industrial structure
• Support the formation of food enterprise cluster
• Encourage vertical integration
• Online-offline Convergence

Thanks for your listening!