The General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council recently issued opinions on further strengthening the supervision of the entire chain of food safety.
The General Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council have recently issued a guideline aimed at strengthening food safety supervision across the entire supply chain.
In March 2025, at a food enterprise in Liaoning Province, workers processed chicken in the workshop. Image source: Xinhua News Agency
【Knowledge Points】
In order to further clarify the responsibilities of food safety supervision, establish and improve a coordinated supervision mechanism, strengthen the joint efforts of the entire chain of supervision, resolutely adhere to the bottom line of food safety, and effectively protect the physical health and life safety of the people, the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council recently issued opinions on further strengthening the supervision of food safety throughout the chain of food safety (hereinafter referred to as the opinions). In response to the problems existing in the supervision and connection of all links from farmland to table, including planting and breeding of edible agricultural products, and food production, storage, transportation, delivery and distribution, sales, consumption, import, etc., covering all links from farmland to table, the opinions put forward 21 specific measures in eight aspects: improving the coordinated supervision of edible agricultural products, strengthening the review of food production and operation licenses, accelerating the establishment of a food storage supervision mechanism, accelerating the establishment of a coordinated supervision mechanism for food transportation, improving the safety and distribution safety management of food delivery, strengthening the supervision of new online food sales formats, improving the comprehensive supervision mechanism for catering services, and improving the joint prevention and control mechanism for imported food risks.
The opinions clearly state that the licensing department must strictly review and the regulatory department must supervise it. Especially in the face of the division of labor that controls licensing and does not care about inspections, the opinions require the improvement of the connection mechanism based on the division of responsibilities. For the lack of systems, the opinions have been made to fill the gaps. The opinions emphasize the indispensable nature of the ecological environment department in ensuring the safety of edible agricultural products, and require them to be responsible for promoting the traceability and rectification of heavy metal pollution in agricultural land. The education department should also have a sense of main responsibility in campus food safety governance and strengthen the overall management and guidance of school food safety-related work. When emphasizing the food safety responsibility chain around the entire chain, the opinions put forward specific measures to implement responsibilities through capacity building and implement responsibilities based on institutional arrangements. Focusing on the weak links in the entire chain, it highlights the capacity building needs of food transportation practitioners and online delivery personnel, and clarifies the empowerment responsibilities to the corresponding regulatory or competent departments. For example, the human resources and social security department should include the mastery of food safety legal knowledge in the national professional skills standards for online delivery personnel.
【Important Speech】
People’s health is an important symbol of national prosperity and national strength. Put the protection of people’s health in a strategic position of priority development and improve people’s health promotion policies.
People’s health is a key indicator of a prosperous nation and a strong country. We must give strategic priority to ensuring the people’s health and improve policies on promoting public health.
——October 16, 2022, Xi Jinping’s report at the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China
【Related Words】
Campus food safety collaborative management mechanism
collaborative mechanisms for campus food safety management
Online and offline integrated supervision of online meal ordering
integration of online and offline supervision for food delivery services
China Daily Network English Dots and Tianjin Studio (this article was first published on the “Study Strong Country” learning platform)
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[Editor in charge: Chen Danni]
