Shanghai, Beijing to introduce tougher food safety laws

Local authorities in the Chinese cities of Shanghai and Beijing are set to introduce tougher food safety laws, which will enable them to blacklist companies that break food safety regulations.

As per the new regulations, the local authorities will impose stringent punishments on food companies that produce counterfeit items or sell adulterated or expired food.

According to the Shanghai Municipal Food Safety Committee, companies engaged in any of 11 types of harmful food safety practices in the city will be blacklisted and will not be allowed to continue in the food business.

The harmful food safety practices include the production of food from substances that are unfit for human consumption or dangerous materials, and use of banned food additives.

In addition, companies that commit violations will be barred from getting subsidies or any other benefits from the government and preferential government policies, and the executives of the companies will also face charges.

Meanwhile, Beijing plans to roll out new food-safety laws under which food companies producing or selling unsafe food will face a lifetime ban from the industry, reported the Xinhua news agency.

The executives of these companies will not be allowed to operate in the sector for five years.

Beijing will also ban the reuse of discarded oil, called gutter oil, which has become a persistent problem in the country.

The move marks a new attempt by local authorities to increase food safety in the country, and follows reports of antibiotics being used by chicken suppliers of local KFC outlets.

The Shanghai Food and Drug Administration later announced that the antibiotic and steroid levels in chicken served at KFC’s China stores were within the legal limits.

However, the watchdog observed suspicious levels of amantadine, an antiviral drug, in one of the samples tested.