Food regulations urged for small food stalls

China's top food safety regulator urged local governments to speed up legislation on the management of small-sized food workshops and sellers, such as small open food stalls, on the eve of the first anniversary of China's revised food safety law.

China has more than 400,000 small food workshops, most of them with fewer than 10 workers, but they are not effectively regulated, Chen Xu, deputy chief for legal affairs at China Food and Drug Administration, said at a food safety forum on Monday.

Such workshops and food stalls, many of them family owned, usually lack adequate facilities for food processing and sanitary conditions are not satisfactory, he said. But they are not effectively managed due to the fact that there are so many of them and sparsely located, Chen said.

Of all 31 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions on the Chinese mainland, 24 have not adopted laws and regulations on such food producers and sellers as stipulated in articles of the Food Safety Law, which was adopted on October 1, he said.

Lack of laws and regulations also make it more difficult for food safety law enforcement officers to duly punish violations of such food producers and sellers, which are prone to cause food safety incidents, according to Chen.