Ningbo Is to Take a Series of Actions to Ensure Food Safety during the Spring Festival(Feb 7, 2007)

2007-02-07 16:04:32

    Mr. Shi Xiaohua, Chief Director of the Ningbo Food and Drug Administration (NBFDA) says that with the Spring Festival around the corner, the NBFDA shall take a series of actions specified below to ensure the food safety and guarantee a happy and safe festival for people.
    Action 1. Special law enforcement campaigns on safety of primary agricultural products shall be initiated. The campaigns shall focus on investigating and treating unlawful production and sale of forbidden pesticides, vet drugs, feed, and feed addictives, as well as selling of animal by-products with super-standard residual of vet drugs. More sampling tests shall be conducted to guarantee safety of the main products.
    Action 2. Campaigns shall be waged to battle against “black” (unlicensed) household workshops processing foods and use of non-food materials to process food. Meanwhile efforts shall be tightened on sample testing of plant foods. Efforts shall also be stepped up to combat unlicensed processing.
    Action 3. All-round checkup campaigns shall be conducted on foods briskly demanded in the market during the Spring Festival. Stern efforts shall be made to guard against adulterating, counterfeiting, overdue or molded foods, and use of toxic chemicals in food processing. Particular supervision efforts shall be made on food distribution markets in countryside. Dealers of unlicensed foods shall be investigated and punished. Special checkup campaigns shall be conducted on designated slaughterhouses of live pigs and live stock. The supervision departments shall increase rounds to markets, combating against unlicensed slaughtering, making and selling of water-injected meat and diseased meat. A strict market access system shall be implemented for live pigs and bean products coming outside the city.
    Action 4. The food safety supervision on catering businesses shall be strengthened during the Spring Festival, meanwhile the supervision on food hygiene in scenic spots, holiday inns and eateries in rural areas shall also be strengthened so as to prevent outbreaks of mass food intoxication.
    Action 5. Publicity campaigns have nurtured a rational consumption environment. The city has started credit development pilot work on drinking water, vegetables and others in Yinzhou, Beilun and Cixi, trying to find out an effective way to raising the credit awareness of people engaged in food production and dealing. Various food safety publicity campaigns have been waged to increase consumers’ awareness of safety and the ability of discerning unsafe foodstuffs. The campaigns have involved 100 residential communities in the urban areas. In Cixi, the publicity campaigns even go into schools, in the hope of nurturing a climate of all people being mindful of food safety.
    Action 6. Departments concerned shall arrange more personnel on duty during the festival and keep alert on food safety. In case of outbreak of emergency events, they shall strictly follow the stipulations in the Contingency Plan for Food Safety Emergency Events of Ningbo and report it promptly to the local government and the Food Safety Control Office of the city, so that proper countermeasures can be worked out. It must be done promptly, resolutely and efficiently in order that people’s life and health can be safeguarded to the maximum degree.