Grain recall system adds another lock to food security
Although China has had bumper grain harvests year after year, quality and safety still face many challenges, and safety risks from production, circulation, processing and consumption still exist.
China will implement a grain recall system. When grain operators discover that the harmful substance content of the grain they sell exceeds the standard, they shall immediately stop selling it and recall the grain already sold.
This year China achieved a “12th consecutive bumper harvest” in grain, and grain quantity security has been effectively guaranteed. However, grain quality and safety still face many challenges, and quality and safety risks from all links of grain production, circulation, processing and consumption still exist. So how should the bottom line of grain quality and safety be safeguarded? On July 20, the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Food and Strategic Reserves Administration jointly issued the Measures for the Supervision and Administration of Grain Quality and Safety (Draft for Comments), intending to put a safety lock on grain quality with the strictest standards.
For the people, eating grain is no small matter, and quality and safety are more important than the sky. To ensure that the vast number of grain and oil consumers can consume with confidence, safety and health, it is necessary to establish a set of strict national standards and systems and carry out seamless supervision of every link in the long industrial chain from field to table. The most rigorous standards, the strictest supervision, the most severe penalties and the most serious accountability must be used to resolutely safeguard the “bottom line” of grain quality and safety.
The draft for comments proposes that grain operators are the first responsible persons for ensuring grain quality and safety. Legal persons, other economic organizations and individual industrial and commercial households engaged in grain purchasing, storage, transport, processing and sales and other business activities shall establish a grain quality management system, improve the quality and safety control system, and clarify quality and safety management responsibilities.
At the same time, risk monitoring of grain quality and safety must be strengthened. Grain departments at all levels must strengthen risk monitoring in grain production areas. If monitoring finds areas where grain has sprouted, become moldy or been contaminated by fungal toxins due to abnormal climate conditions, policy measures such as centralized purchasing, targeted sales and mandatory inspection shall be taken promptly to prevent the spread of contaminated grain; the quality gate for grain purchased and put into storage must also be strictly controlled. Relevant grain quality and safety items shall be inspected in strict accordance with grain quality standards, food safety standards and relevant provisions.
The draft for comments further stipulates that operators engaged in the processing of edible grain shall have the necessary processing conditions to ensure grain quality and safety, shall not use moldy or spoiled raw grain or by-products for processing, shall not use additives in violation of regulations, shall not use packaging materials that do not meet quality and safety standards, and shall not engage in other acts affecting grain quality and safety. The sale of grain shall strictly implement grain quality standards and food safety standards, and adulteration, substitution of inferior goods for good ones shall be prohibited.
Grain operators engaged in grain business shall establish grain quality files, truthfully recording information such as grain variety, supplier, grain producing area, harvest year, purchase or storage time, storage location and quantity, quality grade, quality condition, pesticide application, sales destination and outbound time. The retention period of grain quality files shall be no less than 5 years from the date the grain is sold out of storage. A grain quality and safety traceability system should be implemented, using inventory grain identification codes as the carrier to establish a whole-process quality traceability system from purchase, storage, transport and processing to sales, so as to achieve traceability of grain quality and safety.
The draft for comments also makes clear that a grain recall system shall be implemented. If grain operators discover that the harmful substance content of the grain they sell exceeds the limits of food safety standards, they shall immediately stop selling it, notify relevant operators and consumers, recall the grain already sold, and keep records for inspection. If the recalled grain can be treated harmlessly, it may be treated harmlessly and may be sold only after passing inspection by a qualified grain inspection institution; if it meets feed safety standards, it may be used as feed raw material; if it does not meet food and feed safety standards, it shall be used as raw material for other industrial purposes.