The Comparative Research On The Food Safety Legal Systems Of China And UK And The Enlightenment

Nowadays, the food safety issue is under the concern of people all over the worldand has become one of the most popular topics. Consequently, it has become a seriousissue for each country to work out how to strengthen the supervision and managementof food safety. Since the1820s, the UK government started a long-term war againstthe food fraud and other food safety issues. After hundreds of years of development,the food safety legal system has been established, which suits the nowadays societystatus very well. The food safety legal legislations in UK mainly includes the FoodSafety Act (1990), the Food Standards Act (1999) and the General Food Regulation(2004) as well as the General Food Law Regulation (EC No.178/2002) enacted by theEuropean Union to regulate the supervision and management of food safety inmember countries. Based on these food safety legislations, a food safety legal systemis formed through the cooperation between the central government and localauthorities, which aims at protecting the customer’s interests. Especially after theoutbreak of mad cow disease in the twentieth century, in order to deal with foodemergency issues and overcome the drawbacks of the food safety legal system, theUK government established the Food Standards Agency and stabilized the food safetyissue and recovered the public confidence in only more than ten years. Due to theoutbreak of a series of food accidents, the food safety issue has also become maybethe most serious social problem in China in recent years. Based on the characteristicsof food market, the central government has accelerated the legal system reform forfood safety, for example, the announcement of the Food Hygiene Law(1995), the FoodSafety Law(2009), the establishment of the State Council Food Safety Commission,the construction of food risk assessment mechanism, the usage of3new food licenses-the Food Processing License, the Food Circulation License and the Catering ServiceLicense. However, since the food safety legal system is still under construction, thegovernment still needs to learn from the experience of UK to solve existing problemssuch as poor supervision, difficulties in enforcement, lack of national food standards,and unfair-protection by local authorities, by which policies suit the current status ofChina can be therefore constituted.