Study On The Legal System Of Food Safety Risk Assessment In China

In the risk society, the development of industrial technology solves the quantity problemof food security, but initiates a new risk-quality problems, especially after the20th century,the rapid development of the food industry makes all kinds of food additives be the lifebloodof the survival and development of the food industry. The society has been shocked time andtime again by the new problems of food security incurred by the new technology because ofthe extensive use of pesticides and veterinary drug in agricultural and animal husbandryproduction, the growingly severe pollution of environment and food by the development ofthe urbanization and modern industries, as well as the increasingly prominent problem oftoxic substances contained in food processing.From Anhui “tainted milk scandal” to the event of “red duck eggs” with Sudan Red, andfrom Sanlu milk powder incident to Clenbuterol event by Shuanghui, etc., all of these raiseddoubts about our current food safety supervision and management. Confronted with thesevere situation of food safety regulation, our country has issued a series of concerningdocuments such as “The food safety law of the People’s Republic of China”,“Food SafetyLaw Implementation Regulations of "People’s Republic of China” and “Food Safety RiskAssessment Management (Trial)”, established the system of food safety risk assessment andfounded national committee of experts for food security risk assessment and national riskassessment center for food safety. However, the establishment of China’s food safety riskassessment system is still in its infancy, there are inadequacies on the aspects of the system,technology and so on.In this paper, comparative analysis and value analysis will be adopted to analyze thecurrent situation and development of China’s food safety risk assessment system and learnfrom foreign experience, and then suggestions of perfecting our system of food safety riskassessment will be proposed.This paper is divided into five parts.The first part is the introduction. First, it will start with Beck’s theory of risk society toanalyze and classify the various kinds of food safety issues emerged in recent years in Chinaand introduce our current assessment system about food safety risk, and then the backgroundand significance of this topic will be described. Secondly, the development and research related to the issue at home and abroad will be summarized. Finally, the innovations anddeficiencies of this article will be presented.The second part discusses the basic theory of the risk assessment system of food safety.First, the concept and the development of this system will be expounded, and then the basicprinciples internationally recognized that should be complied with by the risk assessmentsystem of food safety will be summarized, on the basis of this, the significance of theestablishment of this system will be raised so as to provide theoretical support to theimprovement of China’s risk assessment system of food safety.The third part introduces the legal system of risk assessment of EU, U.S. and Japan. Andthe experience will be drawn by analyzing the legal norms, institutional settings andoperational mechanism of these systems.Part four will analyzes the current situation and problems of China’s risk assessmentsystem of food safety and further explores the cause of the problem, reasons such as theuncertainty of the risk, the deficiency of information disclosure system, the out-datedassessment technology, the complexity of the market conditions for food production are ofvital importance for the imperfection of our system.In the fifth part, China’s national conditions will be combined with to makerecommendations to improve our risk assessment system of food safety from the perspectiveof theory and operation. About the theory, dual valuation basis based on science and valuesshould be established. Under the guidance of the double valuation basis, the relevantprovisions of laws and regulations should be refined, and the maneuverability be enhanced,the system construction be improved, risk rating agencies of vertical management beestablished, the risk assessment laboratory system, the attention degree assessment system aswell as the risk communication mechanisms with the participation of the public which is ledby risk assessment agencies be established.