Zhanjiang steps up food safety efforts

As rising health awareness stokes an increasing demand for food safety, a product quality traceability system is taking form in Zhanjiang, according to the city's Food and Drug Administration.

Taking Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Development as an example, the company puts a QR code or serial number on every package of shrimps which provides information about the shrimps' whole life cycle.

All the raw materials entering the plant have to demonstrate a certificate issued by the China Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau which records the date of capture, weight of the product and code of the aquatic farm.

The information is entered into the computer and follows the product in every step of processing until finally collected on the retail packaging.

Beyond that, the company has also set up surveillance cameras in the production and processing areas so that staff of the monitoring center or authorized customers from the US and Europe can conduct a real-time surveillance.

Another example of the city's food and drug product quality assurance system is the Coral Themed Restaurant, where customers can study the hygienic and cooking conditions in the kitchen through transparent glass or by video feed. Meanwhile, the surveillance videos are sent to the Food and Drug Administration for monitoring.

The same approach is applied to drug industry companies. Relying on its online supervision system, the bureau requires 88 wholesale and 21 retail enterprises to report their transaction data every week. If any problem comes up in the drugs they sell, it is easier to trace back to the problem.