GFSF End of Year Newsletter Released

The coming year is promised with changing landscapes in the field of food safety with new technologies, international standard, and financial instruments. The year-end issue of GFSF Focus is devoted to these new developments with special focus on the Asian food safety markets and the global supply chain. 

Focus’ lead articles spotlight strategic technologies and their growth markets. “By highlighting new food safety technology roll-outs,” “we’re showing future investment and trends in the market,” said Eric Wu, GFSF Director. The issue also contains an article on the Sanitory and Phyto-sanitary (SPS) agreement within TPP. A fourth article looks at the factors driving the demand for food safety liability insurance and GFSF’s endorsement of new insurance products for Chinese company suppliers. In early November Continental Insurance Brokers co-hosted a workshop with GFSF which was designed to introduce Chinese suppliers to two new insurance products it has endorsed for food safety liability and recall of contaminated product. Lastly, Focus looks ahead to early 2015 with its Food Safety Calendar. 

Progress in China’s new Food Safety Law

China is making great progress in addressing its serious food safety concerns and improving its food safety regulation. On June 23^rd, 2014, the revised amendments for China’s Food Safety Law (Draft) was submitted to the ninth meeting of the 12th National People's Congress for review. The New Food Safety law is expected to be put into effect at the end of 2014.

The Draft increased the total number of articles from 104 to 159. The highlights are:

1. The Draft clearly encourages the establishment of a food safety liability insurance system and supports food manufacturing companies to participate in food safety liability insurance.

2. For online food trade, the Draft provisions demand an online third party platform provider do real-name registration of all its food operators and clarify their management responsibilities.

3. The Draft Increases the circumstances that government officials should resign or be discharged, including concealing or lying about major food safety incidents, taking bribes during an investigation of a food safety incident, and participating, harboring or condoning food safety related crimes.

4. The Draft strengthens corporate responsibility by requiring the management personnel in the food safety related area to acquire career qualifications and the establishment of a food traceability management system.

5. The Draft increases consumer compensation substantially to ten times the damage.

  Your Fast Track to North China: Agriculture & Food Expo Harbin 2014

Northeast China's Agricultural Technology, Agricultural Products, Food and Food Production Technology Exhibition and Forum

11 - 14 September 2014

ALEXANDRIA, Va., September 11-14, 2014 – GFSF/China will be co-hosting the Agriculture & Food Expo Harbin, held in Harbin, China. The event brings together top international suppliers of agriculture products, food and beverages, as well as technology in agriculture cultivation and food processing.

Dr. Gilmore President and CEO of GIC Group and Chairman of Global Food Safety Forum (GFSF), will present as part of the Agriculture & Food Expo Harbin 2014. Gilmore will outline the new era for Food Safety issues from the global, macro perspective.

Agriculture & Food Expo Harbin was launched successfully in September 2013 in Harbin. Conceptualized as a targeted trade fair for China`s emerging Northeast, the show was welcomed by exhibitors as a much-awaited opportunity for both the agriculture and food markets in Harbin. Within two trade days and two public days, more than 60,000 visitors had meetings with about 1,500 exhibitors from 9 countries, getting together to learn, purchase, and do business.  

Please see the following link for more information on the Agriculture & Food Expo Harbin 2014: http://www.harbin-agri-expo.com/

GFSF (www.globalfoodsafetyforum.org ) is a non-profit industry platform focused on advancing food safety in Asia.  GIC Group is founder of GFSF and together with Bric Agricultural Consultants, Ltd., manages GFSF’s programs and activities in China.

# # #

Contact: 

Eric Wu, Director, GFSF

1434 Duke Street, Alexandria, VA 22314

ericwu@gicgroup.com

+1 703-684-1366

Sharon Lili Elhadad, GIC Group

1434 Duke Street, Alexandria, VA 22314

sharon@gicgroup.com

+1 703-684-1366                                                                                                      

                        

USDA 

Economists 

Group 

Seminar

Food Safety: Costs in the United States and Global Consequences

Hello,

You are cordially invited to attend the upcoming seminar hosted by the USDA Economists' Group. The presenters are Dr. Richard Gilmore, CEO/President of the GIC Group, and founder/chairman of the non-profit industry organization, Global Food Safety Forum (www.globalfoodsafetyforum.org), and Dr. Travis Minor, an Economist with the US Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.

The seminar will be held on Monday, August 25, at 12:00 noon, in Room 107A of USDA's Whitten Building, Independence Ave SW, Washington, DC. This event is free of charge; you will need identification to enter the building.

If you can't make it to the seminar, feel free to join in on teleconference:

Dial In Number: 1-888-844-9904 or 1-816-423-4261

Access code: 9448054

More information can be found at: www.usdaeconomists.org.

Thanks, and hope to see you there!

China: No ractopamine allowed in US Pork

www.chinadaily.com: 8.14.14

As of Wednesday, China is no longer allowing pork imports from processing plants Tyson Foods in Iowa and Indiana, Hormel Foods Corp in Nebraska, Triumph Foods in Missouri, and Quality Pork Processors Inc. in Minnesota. In total there are 12 facilities (6 processing and 6 cold storage) who have been shut out due to a recent ban on growth additives in pigs. In order to ship pork products into the country, producers must secure third-party verification to confirm that ractopamine, a feed additive, is not present. 

China Daily reports that domestically, China often takes such measures to ensure safety in their products though the move to expand to imported products have been new. Although China remains the world's largest producer of pork, in 2013 the country increased its import of meat by 11.7% from 2012. 

Shanghai requires 5 of the city's restaurant chains to provide supplier information

www.chinadaily.com.cm: 8.11.14

The Shanghai Municipal Food and Drug Administration is now requiring that the following chains: McDonald’s Discos, Burger King, and Carl’s Jr. post information about their suppliers on their internet sites. As part of a movement to provide consumers additional information about their food sources, the city’s FDA aims to use this regulation to increase the costs of non-compliance for suppliers. While this mandate only covers 5 chains, residents believe that it will eventually grow to include all food serving businesses in Shanghai.

The Shanghai government’s notice puts food safety as the top priority for supplier selection. Yesterday, the Municipality held a hearing covering food safety tracking; the information will then be used to draft a provision on various food categories sold in Shanghai. 

Wal-Mart in Shenzhen under investigation by Chinese regulators

Reuters: 8.9.14

Allegations made by a Walmart employee at a Shenzhen branch that workers were violating food safety rules have now come under inspection. These reports include reusing dirty cooking oil, selling expired meat, and failing to toss insect inhabited rice. Regulators have obtained food samples from this particular branch and though they are being tested, Walmart has released a statement that none of the reported activities were found on site. During one of the inspections on this branch, regulation officers found that managers had hand written expiration dates, something that could easily result in the use of expired products. Regarding frying oil, there is no current legislation for how long it can be used or if old and new oil can be mixed.