A Study Of Reform Of The Foodsafety Supervision System In China

Foodsafety concerns people's physical and mental health, life security, as well as social stability and economic sustainable development,the reform of foodsafety supervision system is a fatal national strategy in the new era. This dissertation analyzes problems and reasons to foodsafety supervision system, and provides policy advises to improve the system on the base of experience of developed countries. In the background of building a harmonious society, studying the approach to the reform of national foodsafety supervision system bears important and operative significance to advertise the philosophy of foodsafety and scientific consumption, to advance efficiency of supervisors' work and public satisfaction, to promote of national foodsafety supervision system reform, to enhance of government credibility, and to erect the image of a serving government.The dissertation is composed of three parts: introduction, main body and conclusion.The first part of the main body introduces basic theoretical knowledge on foodsafety supervision system. It introduces definitions of foodstuff and foodsafety, connotation and necessity of foodsafety supervision, the structure and function of foodsafety supervision system. So far the definitions of foodstuff and foodsafety are different here and abroad. According "Foodsafety Law" in China:Food means various edible or drinkable finished product and raw material for humans, with exception of traditional food-drug material for medical treatment. Foodsafety means foodstuff shall be innocuous,conform with due nutritional requirement, and engender no acute, sub-acute or chronic hazard. Foodsafety supervision refers to supervisory activities about foodsafty required by the government to maintain the public health and life security. In view of the economics,foodsafety issues derive from market failure, and solution to foodsafety problems depends on intervention of administrative power. This dissertation stresses on needs of governmental supervision in foodstuff transaction from external effects, information asymmetry and trustworthy property of foodstuff. If supervisory system is faulty, consumers' health can't be safe. Foodsafety supervision system is an organo-wholeness of interrelated or interactive elements with specific functions to achieve the goal of food supervision, including actors, standards, mechanisms and objects. Foodsafety supervision system promises earth-to-table foodchain conforms to the requirement of standards, and can adjust its structure and functions with feedback function.The second part of main body discusses problems and reasons to foodsafety supervision system. It firstly reviews the development of national foodsafety supervision system. The construction of the national foodsafety system roughly covers 3 stages: initiation from 1949 to 1976; development period from 1977 to 1994; transforming period from 1995 to 2008. Currently the state adopts model of aggregative coordination plus sub-regulation of relative organs, thus build up foodsafety supervision system primaryly. Then, it discusses problems and reasons to our foodsafety supervision system. The problems in national foodsafety supervision system are about supervisory philosophy, supervision system, standard and attestation, food-evaluation early-warning and detection, information disclosure system, accountability mechanism, etc. The main reasons are as follows: faulty legal system for safty supervision; benefit gaming among supervisors; "umbrella" phenomenon in local government supervision; supervisory problems from decentralized agricultural production.The third part discusses reformational approaches of national foodsafety supervision system.Firstly, it introduces foodsafety supervision systems and inspirations from developed countries. The current prevailing supervisory models in the world are "distributed model" and "centralized model". "Distributed model" means foodsafety supervision duty is shared by several agencies, getting assistance from auxiliary agencies, with representatives of the U.S., Canada and Japan. "Centralized model" tends to centralize all foodsafety supervisory functions within one single department which exercises overall supervision of country's foodsafety, with representatives of Germany, Britain and Denmark. Foodsafety supervision system of developed countries inspires China to some extent. "Centralized model" works more efficiently than "distributed model" from the view of supervisory mechanism. On measures, developed countries stress on sophisticated legal system, standard system, test and detect system, risk assessment and early warning mechanism, problem-food tracing mechanism, mechanism of quick response to food-crisis, and rigid penalty mechanism, etc.Secondly, it advises principles to the reform of national foodsafety supervision, including the combination of tactics principle and systematic principle; the combination of internationalization principle and localization principle; principle of reducing the cost of foodsafety effectively.Last, it provides measures for the reform of foodsafety supervision system. First, people-oriented administrative philosophy should be implemented scientificly. The goal of foodsafety supervision is to guarantee foodsafety, or the life and health condition of the public, and its essence is protection of humans. Second,reconstruction of foodsafety supervision system. By identifying and analyzing the relations between food logistics stages, it needs to restructure multiple foodsafety supervisory departments, forming the system of "one-exclusive with three-auxiliary". "One-exclusive" means foodsafety supervision and administration takes charge of safety supervision of supply chain from seed input and operation to final consumption. "Three-auxiliary" means qulity inspection agencies, enviornmental protection agencies and health agencies assume relevant assistant functions. The new supervisory system farthest reduces the number of supervisory sectors to supervise centralizedly with the coordination of Foodsafety Committee in the State council, and to prevent the abuse from multiple supervisions in the system. Third, regulations for supervisory system should be improved, correlative rules and statutes should be modified; foodsafety standard should be unified. Fourth, a systematic supervisory mechanism should be built. Starting from systematic ideas, this dissertation brings forward nine mechanisms, including market credit, attestation and ratification, risk assessment and forecast, technical detection, information disclosure, social supervision, quick reaction to unexpected events, tracing and recalling and duty-inquiring, etc, which using control measures through the process.