Officials: Improve management of food safety issues

Officials from the Ministry of Commerce have called for improved management of China's food safety issues.

"Food safety is directly related to people's lives and health so the government should improve management of those issues," said Song Yaoming, deputy director of the Department of Asian Affairs at the Ministry of Commerce.

"The Chinese government has done a lot of work on food safety matters, such as passing food safety laws and regulating corporate behavior, which greatly improves the overall safety of the food industry in China," said Song at a Sino-Japanese forum on food safety and cooperation opportunities, which ended on Thursday.

Song also suggested that relevant departments from China and Japan boost cooperation, especially in disclosing information related to the food industry and setting up mutually agreed-upon food standards.

According to a recent State Council statement, food safety will become a measure of local governments' performance in their annual assessments. A database of food companies' safety records will also be established. Blacklisted companies' names will be made public and the companies will be punished.

In 2011, several food safety scandals emerged, including restaurants serving food cooked with "gutter oil" — cooking oil recycled from kitchen waste, decomposed animal fat and organs from slaughterhouses.