Safety of food imports is high, government reports

Food imported to China was found to be quite safe from 2010 to 2014, as only 70,000 tons, a small fraction of total imports, failed to meet China's national food safety benchmarks, the government reported today.

A white paper released by General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said the food imports that failed to meet the standards were valued at $150 million.

In 2014, China's volume trade of imported food and agricultural products rose to $121.5 billion from 2001's $11.8 billion.

The unsafe imported food included cakes and biscuits, beverages, grains, dairy products and alcohol. They were mainly imported from the United States and Japan, and the countries in the European Union and the Association of South and East Asian Nations, the paper said.

Lin Wei, director of the Bureau for the Safety of Imported and Exported Food, said food deemed unsafe typically was contaminated, failed to qualify as quality goods or contained inappropriate food additives.

Stricter inspections will be conducted in the future to continuously ensure the safety of imported food, and protect the rights and interests of the domestic consumers, Lin said.