China consolidates food safety standards

China has released more than 300 new national standards on food safety after consolidating some existing standards, the China National Center for Food Safety Risk Assessment said on June 21.

The 303 new standards, addressing dairy safety, limits of pollutants and traces of pesticides, among other topics, cover more than 6,000 indexes, according to Wang Zhutian, assistant director of the center.

China has nearly 5,000 national food standards issued by different departments but many overlap or contradict each other, resulting in difficulty in supervision, Wang said.

China will clarify all the existing standards and consolidate them to a unified mandatory standard food safety system before the end of 2015, according to center.

China will formulate national food safety standards in accordance with its level of social and economic development while referring to international standards, said Fan Yongxiang, a researcher at the center.