Harsher, more meticulous food safety law upheld

Lawmakers also suggested a series of revisions concerning a retroactive food safety monitoring network, which the bill establishes.

Chen Weiwen, member of the NPC Standing Committee, suggested that the law should move further from the production of food to the growth of their ingredients.

For instance, many dietary supplements use ingredients from medical herbs. The species of the herbs and the environment these herbs grow in will greatly influence the quality and safety of dietary supplements, Chen said.

He expects the law to integrate the monitoring networks of processed food and farm produce to realize a real monitoring from field to market.

Currently the major food safety problem in China is malpractice of producers and distributors. Acts like injecting clenbuterol into pork, recycling cooking oil from leftovers in restaurant kitchens, selling pork from sick pigs, making medicine capsules with toxic gelatin and passing rat and fox meat off as mutton and beef have made headline news in China recently.

Several lawmakers expressed concern about chronic disease caused by unhealthy food.

Chen Zhu, former minister of health and now an NPC Standing Committee member, warned that this will be a major risk in the near future with increasing incidence of obesity and diabetes.

He suggested that the legislation be a step ahead and force producers to label the calories and fat content as well as banning some food additives.