China's Ministry of Health has announced it will step up supervision over the quality of food and cosmetics this year.
Speaking at a press conference yesterday, Su Zhi, deputy director of the ministry's Health Legal Work and Supervision Department, revealed that the ministry is planning to introduce stricter standards on both types of products while increasing the breadth of quality examinations related to them.
He added that the ministry is also working to improve regulations that will facilitate law enforcement in the field.
The ministry released the results of its first examination of food and cosmetic products for this year.
According to Su, the examination was launched to see whether companies had been complying with a trio of laws - the Food Health Law, the Managerial Regulations on Healthcare Products and Health Supervision Regulations on Cosmetics.
The examination paid special attention to additive contents and the potential pollution of distilled wines, soy sauce, pastries and biscuits.
It also attempted to decide whether commercial advertisements have been exaggerating the benefits of healthcare products and whether cosmetics sold on the Chinese market have proper health certificates from the ministry.
While soy sauce and distilled wines were generally found to be clean, 21 percent of the pastries and biscuits were discovered to house potentially hazardous micro-organisms.
According to Su, a number of pastry and biscuit producers have failed to keep their manufacturing processes clean and some containers used in packaging are not up to requirements.
Healthcare products fared worst in the ministry's examinations. Of 16 brands investigated, six were found guilty of "seriously misguiding consumers" by exaggerating their benefits in advertising.
This has led the ministry to organize investigations on the provincial level into a number of healthfood products, especially tonics that claim to treat obesity and fatigue.
Su revealed at the press conference a list of cosmetics that lacked proper health certificates. Every brand on the list, some of which are internationally recognized, are found in big department stores.
(China Daily 03/22/2001)
