Food safety in China has been highlighted by a survey which shows that Chinese consumers are concerned about the food they buy and want government departments to work closer together on food safety issues and increase the frequency of inspections.   

 

 The survey was conducted by the public opinion research centre in Guangzhou province in southern China and found that 80 per cent of the 868 people surveyed were worried about food safety.   

 

 A spate of recent contamination incidents in China has weakened public faith in the government departments involved in food safety, and people are demanding tougher penalties for those who flout the rules.   

 

 Six government departments in China are responsible for food safety and each one tends to ‘pass the buck’ when things get tough. The whole process is slow and there a big gaps between rural and urban areas of the country when it comes to enforcement of food safety regulations and public awareness of the problem.   

 

 That’s the bad news. The good news is that Guangzhou province is introducing its own food safety regulations. There are plans for a recall system and a proposal that government agencies devise a system to distribute information on food safety to all interested bodies, public and private. Things, it is said, are getting better.