States News Service -- States News Service, January 12, 2010 Tuesday

The following information was released by the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of China:

Two national standards on food traceability, namely General Specification for Food Traceability and Food Traceability-Specification on Information Coding and Identification, were approved on December 22, and a series of national standards on food quality and safety traceability are being formulated. With these standards staged, Chinas food quality and safety traceability standards system will be improved.

The General Specification for Food Traceability is applicable to the establishment and management of various food traceability systems. It specifies the basic principles and requirements on food traceability, tracing procedures and management rules. The Food Traceability-Specification on Information Coding and Identification is applicable to the establishment and application of food traceability system. It stipulates the information coding, data structure and data carrier identification on food traceability.

According to the major drafter of the General Specification for Food Traceability and senior engineer of the Article Numbering Center of China(ANCC) Wen Xiangyang, the Food Safety Law of China which took effect as of June 1 last year and its implementation rules have provided legal assurance for the country to carry out food safety traceability and raised requirements for formulation of relevant national standards. As prescribed by the Food Safety Law, food production enterprises shall make an inspection record for all links on the supply chain including raw material purchasing, food producing, processing and packaging, so as to facilitate tracing and recall in the future. Its implementation rules specify clearly that the food producers and traders shall take the primary responsibility for food safety. Food producers shall keep a truthful record of the safety management status during food producing process, and maintain the record for at least two years. Food wholesalers shall keep a truthful record of the name of food products, the name and contact information of food purchasers, with the records or sales book maintained for at least two years.

Since 2003, The ANCC, in the light of the relevant application guidelines of the International Article Numbering Association and Chinas actual conditions, published in succession the Guidelines on Tracking and Traceability of Beef Products, the Guidelines on Tracking and Traceability of Fruits and Vegetables, and Collection of Food Safety Traceability Application Cases, and approved China Barcode Promotion Program with application demonstration systems developed nationwide. These efforts have paved the way for formulation of a series of national standards including the above two.

Its leaned that another 4 national standards, namely, Traceability Requirements for Agricultural Products-Fish and Fishery Products, Traceability Requirements for Agricultural Products-Fruits and Vegetables, Traceability Requirements for Agricultural Products-Honey, and Traceability Requirements for Agricultural Products-Tea, will be reviewed soon. National standards, including Basic Requirements for Pork Traceability System, Traceability Requirements for Agricultural Products-Dairy Products, Guidelines on Design of Agricultural Product Traceability Information System, and Technical Requirements for Meat and Meat Products RFID Traceability, will be drafted in 2010. With the two national standards, the Traceability in the Feed and Food Chain-General Principles and Basic Requirements for System Design and Implementation, and the Traceability in the Feed and Food Chain-Guidelines on System Design and Implementation, which were completed last year, the standards system on food quality and safety traceability in China will be improved greatly.