CFDA Issued the Food Safety Supervision and Sampling Inspection Report in the First Half Year of 2015 - Regulatory News - Food & Food Contact Materials

On August 28, 2015, CFDA issued the food safety supervision and sampling inspection report in the first half year of 2015. There were 33252 batches from 24 kinds of foods sampled and inspected all around China. Among them, 1236 batches were unqualified, and the qualified rate of samples was 96.3%. Compared with the results previous years, the food safety situation in China is stable.

For the top five kinds of daily consumer goods, dairy products were sampled 1391 batches, with a qualified rate of 99.9%; eggs and egg products were sampled 409 batches, with a qualified rate of 99.8%; edible oils, fats and the products were sampled 1975 batches, with a qualified rate of 98.3%; grain and grain products were sampled 4678 batches, with a qualified rate of 96.8%. Detailed information was shown in table 1.

Table 1: Results of food safety supervision and sampling inspection in China in the first half year of 2015

No	Food category	Total batches inspected	Qualified batches	Unqualified batches	Qualified rate
1	Grain and grain products	6680	6536	144	97.8%
2	Edible oils, fats and the products	1975	1941	34	98.3%
3	Meat and meat products	4678	4530	148	96.8%
4	Eggs and egg products	409	408	1	99.8%
5	Vegetables and the products	784	746	38	95.2%
6	Fruits and their products	508	488	20	96.1%
7	Aquatic products	950	882	68	92.8%
8	Drinks	2242	1961	281	87.5%
9	Condiment	2973	2887	86	97.1%
10	Sugar	112	107	5	95.5%
11	Wine	3275	3152	123	96.2%
12	Bakery product	1390	1343	47	96.6%
13	Tea and related products, coffee	902	893	9	99.0%
14	Potatoes and puffed food	552	539	13	97.6%
15	Candies and cocoa products	170	168	2	98.8%
16	Roasted food and nut products	458	433	25	94.5%
17	Beans and their products	630	591	39	93.8%
18	Bee Products	487	463	24	95.1%
19	Frozen beverage	336	309	27	92.0%
20	Canned food	86	84	2	97.7%
21	Dairy products	1391	1389	2	99.9%
22	Foods for special dietary	1410	1322	88	93.8%
23	Food additives	418	416	2	99.5%
24	Restaurant food	436	428	8	98.2%

On the basis of the casual inspection by CFDA, five serious food safety issues should be focused on.

Table 2: 5 serious food safety issues and details in the first half year of 2015

No	Issues	Ratio accounted for total unqualified samples	Details
1	Agricultural and veterinary drug exceeded	2.8%	- The forbidden or limited drugs like chloramphenicol, malachite green, "lean" and enrofloxacin were detected in some samples
2	Illegal to add non-edible substances and use food additives over-range or over-limited	19.3%	- Non-edible substances like borax, rhodamine B, dimethyl fumarate and papaverine were detected in the samples - Food additives like preservatives, sweeteners and colorants were unqualified in some samples
3	Unqualified microorganism index	35.0%	- The total number of colonies, coliform and molds of the samples were over-limited. - Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Listeria monocytogenes, Staphylococcus aureus and other pathogens were also detected in some samples
4	Unqualified heavy metal index	12.7%	- Heavy metals like Al, Pb, Hg exceeded the limitation
5	Unqualified quality index	31.9%	- The items such as alcohol, acid value and conductivity were unqualified.

Through expert analysis, the reasons for unqualified cases can be concluded as follows:

For agricultural and veterinary drug exceeded, it was mainly because of illegal usage of drugs on the farm or during the circulation.
For illegal additives, it was mainly to improve the shelf life or sensory quality of the products.
For unqualified microorganism index, it was mainly because that the production environment, health conditions or storage conditions were not under good control.
For unqualified heavy metal index, it was mainly because of the contamination from production environment, fertilizer or feed.
For unqualified quality index, it was mainly because that the production process was improper.

CFDA has taken a number of measures to deal with these issues, and will still strengthen the supervision and sampling inspection of food safety. Public can find the inspection results on the CFDA website.

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