Food safety remains an issue
China has approximately 500,000 registered food production companies of which nearly 80% are small food workshops with fewer than ten employees. There are also countless small, unregistered operations, often blamed for introducing illegal chemicals and food additives into the food chain.

Furthermore, China has more than 200 million farmers who ship direct to market with little documentation. They often do not have access to information on the correct usage of pesticides, antibiotics and chemical fertilizers and will normally buy the cheapest inputs available in the marketplace. The scattered nature of the production system is the fundamental reason there have been so many food safety incidents in China.

Short term financial benefits (a get rich quick mentality) of producers combined with local governments that are under pressure to earn tax revenues make that food safety laws are often ignored. However, consumers have developed brand loyalties. The trend is that they are willing to pay more for meat that is guaranteed to be safe and uncontaminated.

The 4 main risc factors to food safety issues are:

• A Fragmented Supply Chain
• Integrated Cold Chain Logistics do not really exist
• Outsourcing or Franchising to third parties
• Manpower instead of automated procedure in the product process

 

Source : Responsible Research 2009