The Study On Governance Mechanism Of China’s Food Safety

As a Chinese saying goes“food is the first necessity of the people，and foodsafety is the top priority”.Food safety is closely connected with the interests ofpeople.Food safety issues affect social harmony and stability,comprehensivedevelopment of economy,export trade and so on.But in recent years,China’s foodsafety incidents have received a lot of exposure,and cause hot argument.“Clenbuterol”,“poison milk powder”and other food safety incidents impact onconsumers’psychological bottom line and also reflect there existing great hiddendanger in food safety supervision of our country.On June1,2009,the new“FoodSafety Law”was promulgated and implemented.Before this,China has been usingtwo sets of food safety standards:one is“Food Quality Standard”developed by theGeneral Administration of Quality Supervision and the other is“National FoodHygiene Standards”developed by the Ministry of Health.But just because of the twostandards,many institutions involve in food regulation,which cause considerabledamage.So in this case,the same food,under the different inspection standard,hasdifferent answers.So producers don’t know which standard reference should beused,and consumers wonder whether they can buy.So the new"Food Safety Law"has controlled this chaotic situation,and redefine the food safety standard.In this way,the producers produce in accordance with their respective products and consumerscan be assured shopping.“Food Safety Law"also rearranges food safety regulatorysystem in our country.The State Council administrative department of health guidesthe quality supervision department,computer administrative department,as well asfood and drug supervision and management departments to supervise from thefarming cultivation,production,distribution,consumption,services and other aspectsaccording to the law and their own responsibilities.Meanwhile,the State Council setup a food safety commission to conduct a comprehensive coordination.However,wemust notice that,in theory,this law is indeed the considered result,while itsfeasibility is yet to be questionable.This paper attempt,through the introduction of China’s food supervision status,to analyze the problems and the reasons for China’sfood safety regulator areas in such a background,put forward suggestions of China’sfood safety supervision,and hope to help the improvement of food safety supervisionsystem.This paper uses comparison method and empirical method to discuss the currentfood safety supervision from three parts,and analyzes the improvement of food safetysupervision system.Firstly,this paper describes the background of the current foodissues,lists a series of food safety incidents to prove that the solution of food safetyproblems has been of great urgency,and defined the related concepts of food safety.This concept has increased a level relative to the past.What’s more,people’srequirement of food safety is higher,so we need a new legislation,better food safetysupervision system to safeguard people’s interests.Next,in this paper,the author willfind out the loopholes of food safety regulation,such as imperfect legal system offood safety,the conflicts between departments,long regulatory,regulatory overlap,blank regulation,unequal power in supervision and the problems of regulatoryenvironment.According to China’s actual conditions and the problems of food safetysupervision,the author will offer his proposal:One is to clear regulatory body,re-dividing the authority to ensure that each regulatory phases can be closelyconnected,which makes food supervision perfect;Two is to improve theaccountability system,not only having the administrative punishment,but also thecriminal punishment,and as for the punished objects,including the producer,operator,the director of the enterprise as well as government management,which can ensurefairness;Three is to establish the information system of food safety supervision,forwithout systematic information;people cannot get the complete information aboutfood safety and make the correct choice;Four is to strengthen the food safetysupervision and establish a scientific oversight mechanism to force the variousregulatory authorities to strictly perform their duties to safeguard the food safety andpeople’s interests;Five is to strengthen publicity and education to increase awarenessof food safety;Six is to let food industry association play a key role.When resourcescan not be allocated efficiently relying on the spontaneous operation of marketmechanism,government regulation will be necessary to play a role to maximizeresource utilization. In addition,the mechanisms of social autonomy,such as the supervision ofindustry associations,enterprise self-discipline,consumers and mass mediasupervision have become increasingly prominentThis paper is divided into five chapters.First introduced in the current foodbackground,lists a series of food safety incidents of food safety problems have beenshown to brook no delay.And this paper relates to the related concept of thedefinition of the concept of food safety from the past have been standard to raise alevel,people’s food requirements are also rising qualitative height,there is a need fornew legislation,improve the supervision of food safety to safeguard people’s interests.Followed by a second to fifth sections of government departments,organizations,consumers,producers from the current situation,status,effect,problems witheconomic method based on in-depth study.And how to improve China’s food safetyof the main recommendations.The government supervision as the key,thegovernment is main body of supervision,it is management main body,but now ourgovernment regulation exists many defects,such as food safety legal system is notperfect,departments of the conflict,several authorities,duplication of regulatorysupervision,supervision,blank authority and responsibility is not equal,theregulatory environment problems and so on.Therefore must be based on the actualsituation of our country,in view of our country food safety regulation and existingproblems in the reform and improvement of its recommendations.One is the clearregulation of the main,to divide authority to ensure that each regulatory phases canbe seamless connection,regulation of food obtained complete supervision;two is toimprove the accountability system,not only have the administrative punishment,butalso the criminal punishment.And punished not only is the producer,the operator,themain controller of the enterprise.Government management department will bepunished accordingly,fair;in other civil authority must also play its self-disciplineand supervision,the food safety law subject into a multi-party participation systemengineering.