Mr. Shi Xiaohua, Chief Director of the Ningbo Food and Drug Administration (NBFDA) releases the news that the food safety work of Ningbo has come up a new stage in the year of 2006, as result of the high-profile safety control campaigns and particular efforts on innovation.
    I. Food Safety Work Further Strengthened Thanks to Concerted Efforts and Innovative Measures
    A new working mechanism of food security has taken initial shape. The NBFDA, while carrying out the Resolution on Reinforcing Food Safety of Ningbo (RRFS), has instituted a “1+X” system which makes clear-cut the responsibilities of food administrative departments and helps set up accountability mechanisms in various government organs related, made and put into practice the Measures of Food Safety Information Control and Release and drawn up a dozen of laws and regulations about it, such as Emergency Measures for Food Safety Outbreaks and a Three-Year Plan for Food Safety. As a result of these efforts, a food safety working mechanism featuring “Coordination, Division and Synergy” has been basically established.  
    A much stressed evaluation has advanced progress of the food safety work. To harness the food supply sources NBFDA has launched projects of “Fake-free Stores”, Agricultural Means Chains, and Standardized Food Markets. Screening efforts (surprise campaigns, secret rounds or checkups) have been made on the stores in city outskirts. To raise the credibility of food producers and dealers, the NBFDA has started up a credit development system; to tackle the problem of repetitious construction of testing and quarantine facilities, it has made efforts to integrate the resources of testing and quarantine of the city. In the light of the fact that more than 70% of the foods in Ningbo come outside the city, the NBFDA carries out a supply-source-traceable strategy on bulk goods of foods. With a year’s efforts, the various indices have been well fulfilled and the control on food safety has been enhanced. 
    A guarding network of food safety has been formed. Ningbo has finished one year in advance the building of modern circulation net of countryside, an objective required by the provincial government, thus joining the first ranks in the province. Now supermarket chains have been set up in all the 91 towns and 2,858 “Fake-Free” stores established. The centralized distribution network has covered 90% of the villages and towns, with the food distribution rate reaching 69%. The Monitoring Accountability Net and the Mass Supervision Net making headway, a four-tiered food safety supervision network (city-county-township-village) has taken shape. 
    The testing capacity and efficiency has been raised. All the 28 testing agencies of the city, with testing equipment worth RMB 120 million Yuan, have been formed into a universal food safety testing platform, with the Testing Center under Ningbo Quality Control Bureau as the core. The testing agencies have doubled the testing efforts, coverage and frequency. The Municipal Government has put in a special fund of one million Yuan for the evaluation testing of foods, which helps the government to have a clear picture of the food safety conditions of the city and provides a sound basis for the government to make right decisions. 
    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.
    II. Food Hygiene Keeps Improving and People’s Confidence in Food Safety Keeps Increasing
    Food Hygiene on Rising Momentum. Things have improved gradually in terms of chemical residuals in vegetables and aquatic products. A routine testing in 2006 shows the up-to-standard rate of vegetables reaches 93%, one percentage point higher year-on-year. That of aquatic products reaches 95.6%, 1.1% higher than the previous year. The quality of animal by-products keeps stable. The rate of clenbuterol residues found in live pigs is similar to that of the year before, kept at 0.15% and the qualified rate of other animals rises from 98.1% to 99%. The quality of processed foods out of plants is increased too, with the qualified rate rising from 80.2% in 2005 to 85% in 2006. And particularly the rate in kind reaches 94.6%. The quality index is increased from 92 to 92.3%. The quality of foods in circulation links is kept stable, with sampling percentage of pass rising to 98.6% in 2006 from 98.4% in 2005. The food intoxication rate keeps dropping. The tableware sterilizing rate is 83.8%. There are altogether four cases of food intoxication in the city, down 42.8% than the year before. The incidence rate of that stands at 1.1/100,000, the lowest ever in history. 
    Consumers’ Confidence in Food Safety Increasing. A poll on food safety in 2005 found that those reporting “safe” and “relatively safe” was only 22% and those responding “average” and “not safe” accounted for 39.3%. And a poll in 2006 targeted the 11 counties and districts of the city indicated that those reporting “safe” takes 27.7%, that of “average” 61.0%, and that of “not safe” drops to 11.3%, down 28%. The “Safe” percentages on 12 categories of foods have reached 80%.