Food is the most important thing for the people, and safety comes first. The Food Safety Law of People's Republic of China (PRC) (hereinafter referred to as the Food Safety Law) came into force in June 1 year, and the Food Hygiene Law, which has been in force for nearly 14 years, was abolished at the same time. From "food hygiene" to "food safety", the change of only one word reflects the crisis faced by food safety and the urgent requirement to solve food safety problems. The Institute of Toxicology and Functional Evaluation of Jiangsu Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention has always been responsible for the safety testing and functional evaluation of food and health food, so it pays special attention to the study and implementation of the Food Safety Law, and has organized collective study and discussion in the whole hospital for many times to understand the substantive connotation of its chapters related to testing. The experience of studying the Food Safety Law is summarized as follows.
Highlight 1: There is a unified national standard for food safety.
The Food Safety Law clarifies the principle of unified formulation of national food safety standards. The provisions of Article 21 and Article 22 shall be formulated and promulgated by the administrative department of health of the State Council. The current quality and safety standards for edible agricultural products, food hygiene standards and food quality standards are integrated and uniformly promulgated as national food safety standards. For our inspection organization, the inspection basis is more clear. In the past, "nonstandard" food safety standards have always been the weakness of China's food safety supervision. Take day lily as an example. According to the standards of the health department, it is not dried vegetables, and there must be no sulfur dioxide residue. According to the regulations of quality inspection and agricultural departments, day lily belongs to dried vegetables, and its sulfur dioxide residue standard is clearly defined. Such "fighting" food standards not only confuse food production enterprises, but also confuse inspection agencies.
Highlight 2: Food inspection agencies and personnel have greater responsibilities.
The Food Safety Law clarifies the qualification access system of food inspection institutions, and Article 58 stipulates that "food inspection shall be conducted independently by inspectors designated by food inspection institutions. Inspectors shall inspect food in accordance with relevant laws and regulations, food safety standards and inspection specifications, respect science, abide by professional ethics, ensure that the inspection data and conclusions issued are objective and fair, and shall not issue false inspection reports. " Article 59 stipulates: "Food inspection shall be carried out under the responsibility system of food inspection institutions and inspectors. The food inspection report shall be stamped with the official seal of the food inspection agency and signed or sealed by the inspectors. Food inspection agencies and inspectors are responsible for the food inspection reports issued. " Article 93 stipulates that "in violation of the provisions of this Law, if a food inspection institution or food inspector issues a false inspection report, the inspection qualification of the inspection institution shall be revoked by the competent department or institution that granted its qualification; The persons in charge and food inspectors who are directly responsible for the inspection institutions shall be dismissed or dismissed according to law. Personnel of food inspection institutions who have been subjected to criminal punishment or dismissal shall not engage in food inspection within ten years from the date when the punishment is executed or the decision on punishment is made. If a food inspection agency employs personnel who are not allowed to engage in food inspection, the competent department or agency that granted the qualification shall revoke the inspection qualification of the inspection agency. "
The responsibility of food inspection institutions and personnel is greater, and the inspection institutions themselves should be independent and fair, not only responsible for corporate customers, but also responsible for society.
Highlight 3: No food can be exempted from inspection.
Article 60 of the Food Safety Law stipulates: "The food safety supervision and administration department shall not exempt food from inspection. Quality supervision, industry and commerce administration and food and drug supervision and administration departments at or above the county level shall conduct regular or irregular sampling inspection of food. When sampling inspection is carried out, sampling samples shall be purchased, and inspection fees and any other fees shall not be charged. "
In the past, in TV advertisements, we often saw food manufacturers slogan "national inspection-free products". However, "exemption from inspection" is not always safe, and sometimes it makes consumers numb. At the same time, the quality inspection department exempts enterprises from inspection on the grounds of "long-term stability of product quality", which may easily lead enterprises to relax their own quality requirements without supervision. This time, I had the honor to communicate with FDA officials at an international conference held by the CDC, and learned that only five manufacturers in the United States are allowed to produce baby milk powder, and none of them can be exempted from inspection. Not only milk powder, but no products and enterprises in the United States have the privilege of national inspection exemption. The United States never opened the import market of baby milk powder and any other milk powder to China, and then encouraged manufacturers to sell more high-quality baby milk powder to China, such as Abbott and Mead Johnson. There is no such thing as "exemption from inspection" in most countries in the world. After the melamine incident in China, the FDA quickly inspected the infant milk powder market in the United States, and immediately issued the "Recommendations on Health Information of Infant Milk Powder", asking American mothers to buy with confidence. The FDA has truly implemented what we often say, "Responsibility is more important than Mount Tai".
There are indeed many products of large enterprises in China. No matter how the government checks them, they are always qualified, but they are made of quality, morality, corporate social responsibility ethics and consumer reputation. They are not made by government agencies or bombed by advertisements. As a government act, it is absolutely impossible to avoid inspection, because quality sampling is to fulfill the will of the state and protect the interests of consumers. Therefore, the newly implemented Food Safety Law stipulates that food safety supervision and management departments shall not exempt food from inspection, and legalize the previous measures to cancel inspection exemption in the State Council.
Highlight 4: Health food promotion must not involve therapeutic functions.
Article 51 of the Food Safety Law stipulates: "Foods with specific health care functions shall not cause acute, subacute or chronic harm to the human body, and their labels and instructions shall not involve the functions of disease prevention and treatment, and the contents must be true, and the suitable people, unsuitable people, functional components or symbolic components and their contents shall be indicated; The function and composition of the product must be consistent with the label and instructions. This provision was not reflected in the initial draft for comments and was later added. " This legal provision sets a "hard lever" for health food that must be observed: if it is approved according to health food, consumers cannot be told "which diseases can be prevented and treated after taking it" during the publicity process. This regulation makes the producers and operators of health food afraid of the raw materials of the products, and reduces the danger of consumers getting sick if they can't make up.
Highlight 5: Food safety risk monitoring and assessment
Article 11 of the Food Safety Law stipulates: "The state establishes a food safety risk monitoring system to monitor food-borne diseases, food pollution and harmful factors in food".
According to the Implementation Regulations of People's Republic of China (PRC) Food Safety Law (Draft) published by the Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council, when it is necessary to judge whether a certain factor constitutes food safety hazards, the health administrative department of the State Council shall organize food safety risk assessment. The seven situations specified in the draft are (1) which need to be evaluated to provide scientific basis for formulating or revising national food safety standards; (two) the need for risk assessment, determine the key areas and varieties of supervision and management, and evaluate the effect of supervision and management measures; (3) discovering new factors that may endanger food safety; (four) it is necessary to judge whether a certain factor constitutes food safety hazards; (5) it is necessary to judge whether a certain food is safe; (6) Risk assessment is required as stipulated in Articles 44 and 63 of the Food Safety Law; (seven) other circumstances in which the health administrative department of the State Council considers it necessary to carry out risk assessment.
According to the draft, the health administrative department of the State Council should report the results of food safety risk monitoring and risk assessment to the agricultural administrative department of the State Council in time. The administrative department of agriculture of the State Council shall promptly report the results of risk monitoring and risk assessment of edible agricultural products to the administrative department of health of the State Council. If the health administrative department of the State Council requires the agricultural administrative department of the State Council to provide the safety assessment results of pesticides, fertilizers, growth regulators, veterinary drugs, feeds and feed additives and other relevant materials according to the needs of food safety risk assessment, the agricultural administrative department of the State Council shall provide them in time.
To completely eliminate the criticism of the food industry, of course, we need our food safety law, but we also need a big social environment in which everyone is ashamed. Only when every practitioner takes this moral law as the internal driving force, the food safety law is not only "an armchair strategist", but also carries heavy public expectations.