Recently, the media conducted an online survey and the results showed that "Healthy China" has become one of the hot keywords that netizens are concerned about. In the implementation of the "Healthy China" strategy, netizens are concerned about immediate issues such as food safety. Many experts and professors have put forward proposals regarding this livelihood hotspot, suggesting that China strengthen its efforts to ensure food safety.

food testing

Indeed, in recent years, there have been frequent major food safety incidents both domestically and internationally, reflecting a serious lack of social responsibility and legal awareness among some food production and operation enterprises. However, these issues are also related to factors such as the current loopholes in food safety supervision, outdated food testing technology and equipment. Compared to developed countries such as Europe and America, China's food safety testing industry started relatively late, and there is still room for development in terms of institutional standards, testing institutions, and technical equipment. Therefore, it is necessary for China to learn from the experiences of other regions and establish a food safety regulatory system that is in line with the national conditions.

Without rules and regulations, things cannot be achieved. Standards and regulations need to be improved

As the saying goes, without rules, there can be no harmony. The emergence of food safety issues is ultimately due to the lack of systems and standards. To this end, countries and regions around the world have revised their relevant legal systems and are committed to developing and improving food standards. For example, the European Union, which has always been praised by countries for its food safety regulatory mechanisms, had as many as 160 food safety technical regulations as of 2002. From food safety management and control, detection and analysis methods, to toxic and harmful substances and hygiene requirements, labeling and identification, to food contact material hygiene, special diets, almost all have detailed regulations. In order to develop more scientific and reasonable institutional standards, the EU will also conduct safety assessments of various food risks, provide timely and accurate scientific recommendations on food safety, and provide data basis for decision-makers to formulate relevant policies.

In terms of institutional standards, China implemented the Food Hygiene Law in 1995 and replaced it with the new Food Safety Law in 2009. The latter has established a scientific management system in China based on food safety risk monitoring and assessment, and also uses the results of food safety risk assessment as the basis for legislation and regulation. However, there is still a problem of outdated food safety laws and regulations, and some foods do not have targeted standards, which often need to be repaired after an incident occurs. At the same time, there are still some loopholes hidden in the food safety system that are easily exploited by criminals. It can be said that China's food safety legal system and standard system need further improvement.

The detection technology is relatively weak, and scientific instruments are expected to make progress

Food safety issues are regulated by systems and standards, and also require testing techniques and equipment to detect them. *The United States is a major manufacturer of testing instruments, with dozens of testing instrument manufacturers including Thermo Fisher Scientific, PerkinElmer, Agilent, and Waters. These scientific instrument fields represent the level of front-end instrument manufacturing, and their product applications cover multiple regions and areas. Japan, also a technology powerhouse, has instrument manufacturing giants represented by Shimadzu, who have launched a series of instrument products suitable for food safety testing.

In contrast, due to a late start and slow initial development, China is relatively weak in food safety testing technology and equipment. The main manifestation is that most of the detection technologies are borrowed from other countries, there are too few independently developed food safety detection instruments, and most of the equipment relies on imports. At the same time, there is also a shortage of relevant professional talents in China, and the degree of specialization of testing personnel is limited, resulting in some complex food testing problems or sudden food safety incidents. However, with the advancement of science and technology, China's food safety testing industry has also achieved rapid development in research and application. A large number of modern detection technologies, such as rapid paper inspection, immunological techniques, and molecular biology detection methods, have emerged one after another, bringing great help to domestic food safety supervision work.

Summary: Data shows that from 14 billion yuan in 2010 to 56.1 billion yuan in 2017, China's food safety testing market has maintained a growth rate of 20%. According to relevant professional institutions' calculations, although the data for 2018 has not yet been released, it is not impossible to reach 66.5 billion yuan. In the new year, the domestic market will maintain a stable growth trend, and together with other markets in the Asia Pacific region, it will become a new engine for the development of the food safety testing industry. Faced with the development of * *, China still needs to learn more in testing technology, instruments and equipment, regulatory systems, and other aspects to meet the growing demand for food safety testing domestically.
Article link: Chemical Instrument Network