Comparison and Enlightenment of China’s and EU’s Food Safety Supervision Systems

College of Economics and Management, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China

Abstract Food is the paramount necessity of the people, and safety is most essential for food. Food safety is related to people’s fundamental interests, affecting people’s basic health. It is an important factor in promoting people’s livelihood development and social progress. Compared with European countries and the United States in developed food safety supervision systems, the development of food safety supervision system in China is still relatively backward. As food safety supervision is not in place, food safety incidents have occurred in recent years, so that public’s panic about food safety has intensified. It has a strong impact on social stability and the food economy. Thus, strengthening the construction of food safety supervision system is imperative. Since experiencing a series of food safety incidents, the EU has gradually improved its food safety supervision system and has developed the most comprehensive and mature food safety supervision system in the world. On the basis of sorting out the characteristics of EU’s food safety supervision system, the development direction of China’s food safety supervision system is proposed from four aspects: supervisor, legal system, law enforcement ability and safety standards.

Key words Food safety, Supervision system, Comparison, Enlightenment

1 Introduction

Since the reform and opening up, China’s economy has achieved rapid growth, the public’s living standards have gradually improved, and the food consumption habits have undergone tremendous changes[1]. People have gradually changed the demand for food from the "quantity" requirement to the "quality" requirement. People no longer worry about the amount of food they need to meet their survival needs. Instead, they pay more attention to the taste, nutrition and safety of food for the pursuit of a better life. Since food safety is closely related to people’s lives and is the basic condition for human life, food safety has gradually become the focus of public attention. However, in recent years, food safety issues such as "poisonous bean sprouts", Hainan "saccharin-soaked jujubes" and smuggling "zombie meat" still occur from time to time. The food safety problem of "killing for money" has repeatedly appeared, so that the public has to re-examine seriously whether China’s food safety supervision system is sound and complete. On the other hand, after the food safety incidents such as "poisonous bean sprouts" have been handled, it also allows the public to see where there are needs to supplement and improve the laws and systems related to food safety in China. Problem with the foundation of the public has not only caused a great impact on the national food economy but also aroused some public dissatisfaction with the society, affecting social stability. Therefore, China’s food safety supervision system needs to be optimized and improved. Building a food safety supervision system can help gain more people’s trust. This plays an important role in stabilizing society, improving government credibility and social cohesion. The EU has experienced many food safety incidents. Its food safety supervision system has also evolved and improved with the occurrence of food safety incidents, and has now developed into a globally recognized representative of food safety supervision. Since 2015, China’s food safety supervision system has undergone tremendous changes, the vacancies and defects in the previous food safety supervision system have been supplemented, enriched and improved[2]. However, there is still a certain gap compared with the EU with a mature supervision system. The successful experience of the development of EU’s food safety supervision system has provided a new direction for the construction of China’s food safety supervision system.

2 Basic framework of EU’s food safety supervision system

The development of EU’s food safety supervision system is a global leader in the field of food safety supervision systems. The EU has developed a matching supervision system based on its regional development, has been in strict accordance with the standards for food safety supervision, and has achieved good results.

2.1 Evolution of EU’s food safety supervision system

2.1.1Brewing state (1962-1996). Agriculture in European countries began to languish after suffering severe damage caused by the Second World War. In order to resume production, food demand in most European countries was high, but supply was seriously inadequate. The shortage of food supplies had become the primary problem facing European countries in their pursuit of development. In 1962, the European Community introduced a common agricultural policy to stimulate agricultural product output growth with high price subsidies[3]. Driven by interest factors such as policy subsidies, Europe began to intensively produce, and the enthusiasm of farmers had been greatly improved, which effectively alleviated the shortage of food supply. However, the resulting problem of farmer behavior has also laid the groundwork for the outbreak of food safety incidents in the future. Farmers used a large amount of fertilizers and pesticides in pursuit of production and profits; and farmers used sick animal residues as feed to avoid buying regular feed to reduce costs, indirectly spreading animal diseases to other areas. In the 1990s, diseases such as mad cow disease swept across Europe, and people’s food safety was seriously threatened. The construction of a food safety supervision system was imminent.

2.1.2Reform and development stage (1997-2001). Before the 21st century, food safety incidents arising within the EU were supervised by each member state. Due to the failure to achieve unified coordination of supervision powers and responsibilities, some member states only stood in the perspective of their own economic interests, and they did not communicate the food safety incidents to the public or the EU. For example, in 1985, the first case of mad cow disease appeared in the United Kingdom. However, it was believed that incident report would have an impact on the domestic beef industry and trade, so the British government had concealed this for many years and continued to produce and trade beef. Until the mad cow disease occurred frequently in 1996, the British government felt it difficult to conceal the fact and told the public that the mad cow virus had flowed into the table. The quality of beef consumed by the people was difficult to guarantee, triggering a global food panic. Other countries had accused the British government of acting unscrupulously for the sake of profit. In order to prevent mad cow disease from spreading, other countries immediately stopped importing beef from the UK and conducted inspection for the imported beef. Similar food safety incidents not only cost members a heavy price. At the same time, they also caused huge economic losses to the EU. As the process of European integration accelerated, frequent food safety incidents had become a major concern of EU member states. Member states were thus aware that lack of coordination in good safety supervision made food safety incidents more difficult to control, and the EU had to unify laws and regulations, unify organizations, and act in concert to solve existing problems. Therefore, the European Union officially published the "WhitePaperonFoodSafety" (referred to asWhitePaper) in 2000. It requires that food safety incidents must be handled thoroughly, and good safety legislation also needs to be built on the entire food system to cover the entire process of food supply. The purpose of the EU’s move is to change the past flood of food safety incidents through official control and to ensure that Europeans can obtain safe and reliable food.

2.1.3Strengthening stage (2002-2015). Since theWhitePaperwas not published through the official procedures of the European Union, it does not belong to the EU legislative documents and therefore does not have legal effect. On January 28, 2002, based on the content requirements ofWhitePaper, the EU promulgatedDecreeNo.178/2002(i.e.FoodSafetyBasicLaw). In the same year, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) was established. Since there is still a need for improvement in the early days of theFoodSafetyBasicLaw, the EU has published four rules for it after two years of trails. The rules cover the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) system, feed and food control, food traceability and more. However, as the technology is constantly updated during the food sully process, the original inspection technique and methods are difficult to keep up with the pace of production inspection. Therefore, in March 2005, the European Commission promulgated theEUManagementRegulationsonFoodandFeedSafety. The bill puts new demands on the methods and strengths of food safety inspections and implements supervision and responsibility system for merchants engaged in food production and trade. Not only that, the bill puts high demands on the entire food supply chain. First, the market access standards are improved to avoid inferior products. All kinds of foods entering the market must meet food safety standards during production, processing and sales to cover the food supply chain. This shows that theEUManagementRegulationsonFoodandFeedSafetyare food safety laws and regulations updated in theFoodSafetyBasicLaw, and the original regulations have been implemented and refined.

2.1.4Improvement stage (2015 to the present). To fully update and improve food safety laws, the EU made optimization and adjustments in its food safety policy in 2015. Its main targets were pesticides, veterinary drug residue standards, risk assessment projects, and so on. EU’s food safety standards are more operative under the guidance of constantly updated food safety regulations, indicating new directions for food safety development. EU’s food safety supervision system is gradually improving and maturing.

2.2 Basic framework of EU’s food safety supervision system

All the work of EU food safety supervision has a special organization or agency responsible for operation[4]. For example, the work responsible for policy development regarding food safety regulations is completed by the European Council and the European Commission. The legal basis for EU’s food safety supervision reflects its comprehensive nature, composed of two different level[5]. The first is theFoodSafetyBasicLawand its follow-up principled laws, and the second are some specific operational rules formed under the guidance of theFoodSafetyBasicLaw. For example, the European Union enactedDecreeNo.178/2002, which includes the basic principles of food safety supervision. In 2004, the European Union promulgated theFoodHygieneMeasuresas a supplement to theFoodSafetyBasicLaw. The EU has gradually formed the four basic principles of food safety supervision in accordance with the established food safety legal system and effective implementation, namely: risk assessment principle, full monitoring principle, traceability principle and food safety alert principle. According to the above four principles, the EU food safety supervision organizations have developed food safety traceability system, rapid alert system for food and feed (RASFF), risk assessment mechanism and hazard analysis and critical control point (HACCP) system to provide scientific and powerful means for EU food safety supervision and provide key technical and institutional support for the efficient and healthy operation of EU food safety supervision.

3 Features of EU’s food safety supervision system

Due to the formation of the food safety supervision system in the EU and the practice began earlier, all aspects of the food safety supervision system are becoming more and more sound. Therefore, its food safety supervision system is ahead of the world. The EU’s food safety supervision system has the following characteristics.

3.1 Scientific concept, unified coordinationThe EU countries attach great importance to scientific awareness, and the scientific concept has long been accepted by the general public[6]. In the administration of various organizations in the EU, scientific management is the primary element of its management. All EU food safety laws, regulations and standards are formulated on the basis of science. If there are fields in the process of development that exceed the level of scientific development or cognition at that time, the main drafting agencies will also consult experts and scholars in related fields to increase the scientific nature of the formulation of the articles. In addition, the EU’s technology and information to ensure food safety are updated in a timely manner, and the funding for food safety research has been increased, thus providing a strong trust for the development of EU’s food safety supervision. Uniform coordination is one of the important features of EU’s food safety supervision. In terms of laws and regulations, the basis of the EU’s food safety legal system stems from the Green Paper on the basic principles of EU’s food laws issued in 1997[7]. However, due to the large number of EU member states, the national food safety supervision laws formulated by various countries will inevitably appear to be incompatible with each other in the international arena. Therefore, the EU issuedDecreeNo.178/2002in 2002. In the same year, the EU established the European Food Safety Authority and issued general principles and objectives for food safety supervision to inform the public about the general procedures for food safety supervision and food safety incident handling. In terms of organizational systems, the EU’s food safety supervision agency setting includes two levels of the EU as a whole and member states[8]. The EU has centralized food safety supervision into its specialized food safety management departments for management such as the European Food Safety Authority, so EU’s food safety supervision is not subject to administrative interference. At the same time, the EU has strengthened coordination and cooperation between various safety supervision departments, so that the overall food safety supervision work in the EU is faster and more efficient.

3.2 Regulations are getting better, and standards are becoming stricterFor the EU, the efficient and healthy operation of its food safety supervision cannot be separated from its increasingly sophisticated laws and regulations. A sound legal system is the basic condition for the healthy operation of EU’s food safety supervision system. The existing legal system for food safety supervision in the EU covers all nodes of food circulation, providing effective legal basis for food safety regulations and policies, standard formulation and follow-up supplements. For example, after food safety issues such as mad cow diseases spread in Europe, the EU has issued 18 decrees in accordance with theWhitePaperto fill, modify and improve the gaps or shortage in the field of food traceability[9]. This shows that in the aspect of food safety supervision, the EU has also formulated a number of laws to supervise and control all areas and aspects of food safety under the guidance of the basic plan. At the same time, according to the real-time situation in the region, the laws promulgated in the past are continuously supplemented and updated, thus forming a sound food safety supervision legal system to ensure the legal conduct of food safety supervision. Since things that come into contact with food during the production and sale of food involve all aspects, if it does not meet food safety regulation, some toxic and harmful substances will penetrate into the food, and the resulting food safety issues will affect the entire food supply chain. In the EU’s food supervision philosophy, anything that comes into contact with food should be safe and harmless. The EU has long been conducting food safety supervision with strict food safety supervision concept, and its food safety standards are also formulated under this concept, fully reflecting the high requirements of the food safety supervision concept. In addition, in order to prevent some unscrupulous merchants from making fake sales in the process of food production and sales and ensure the safety of products on the market, the food safety supervision authorities will also conduct supervision and random inspections of food-related enterprises in accordance with relevant regulations.

3.3 Risk assessment, prevention firstIt is not realistic to achieve absolute zero risk of food safety. Ensuring the safety and hygiene of food on the market require food safety related departments or agencies to provide and implement relevant policies and measures. The food safety risk assessment mechanism provides a theoretical basis for food safety control measures. EU’s food safety risk assessment refers to risk assessment of potential factors affecting food safety based on biological, physical and chemical perspectives in an objective environment, analyze the risk characteristics using scientific method, and promote the risk management plan combined with the other objective factors. At the same time, the assessment results will exchange with those of other relevant organizations. At present, food safety risk assessment mechanism is also widely used in other developed countries. It is recognized as one of the effective means of food safety supervision. In addition to food safety risk assessment, the EU has also adopted the RASFF system and the HACCP system to prevent and communicate existing or potential food safety issues[10], striving to reduce the adverse factors that lead to accidents from the root cause of food safety issues. The RASFF system is mainly reported by member states within the EU, and its main function is to inform the member states of the underlying reasons behind the foods that do not meet the safety supervision requirements and the possible consequences, thus ensuring the food safety that consumers should enjoy[11]. The HPCCP system monitors the every link of the food supply chain through technology, identifies the steps in the exception and controls them appropriately, thereby reducing the probability of a hazard occurring[12]. Under the operation of the RASFF system, the EU encourages food producers to implement the HACCP system in their business operations. In the event of a process or standard change in production, processing or any other step, it is necessary to make timely adjustments according to the actual situation for prevention. Other than that, manufacturers and distributors should also keep relevant documents and records in accordance with the requirements of the competent authority.

3.4 Full monitoring, traceable sourceFood safety legislation needs to cover the entire process of food distribution. This new idea, presented in theWhitePaper, has brought the development of EU’s food safety supervision system into a new era. Since then, whole-process monitoring has become an important feature of EU’s food safety supervision. The EU believes that to provide the safest food to the public, it must be based on the monitoring concept of "from farmland to table". Taking the circulation of food production, processing and sales as the starting point, the hidden dangers of food safety in all links should be supervised and reduced effectively. In particular, pre-natal food inputs such as food additives, animal and plant vaccines,etc. should be subject the most stringent control. In the production, the HACCP system identifies microbial hazards and physical and chemical hazards that affect food safety. Post-production food safety related information is shared by the food safety information platform. This not only enables the rapid delivery of food safety information, but also increases public sensitivity to food safety. The traceability construction of food safety is an indispensable aid to ensure that food is traced back to the source and that the public’s awareness of food safety is enhanced. The EU’sDecreeNo.178/2002states that a traceability system should be established at all stages of food distribution. To ensure the successful implementation of the content enacted by the decree, the EU requires all food products within its scope to meet traceability requirements, requires food production and sales companies to register, and requires food safety supervision authorities to inspect and record food production, processing and sales. As a result, the EU has checked all aspects of food circulation, and traceability of food safety is ensured.

3.5 Information transparency, social participationAll member states of the EU attach great importance to human rights. This feature is also reflected in food safety supervision. The EU has emphasized the openness and transparency of supervision when it is setting up a food safety supervision system which uses the public to participate in food safety supervision and develop special laws to restrict the food safety supervision authorities[13]. The EU Food Safety Authority not only establishes a food safety information sharing platform to regularly issue various food safety related information and also uses the form of live webcast to publicly broadcast internal management and daily operations[14]to accept real-time supervision by other government departments and the public. In addition, the food safety supervision department also provides information circulation and management channels for people to participate in food safety supervision. On the one hand, it avoids food safety incidents to a certain extent. On the other hand, it also greatly reflects the concept of democracy. The EU has achieved fairness, justice and openness in food safety supervision to ensure the science and effectiveness of food safety supervision.

4 Comparison of China’s and EU’s food safety supervision systems

TheFoodHygieneLawofthePeople’sRepublicofChinapromulgatedandimplementedby China in October 1995 is an important breakthrough in the construction of China’s food safety legal system. However, the law does not take into account the production of food raw materials.TheFoodHygieneLawofthePeople’sRepublicofChinapromulgated in 2009 basically covers the key content of China’s food safety field from the program, but there are still many problems in the implementation process. Due to the increasingly complex food safety situation in China in recent years, old food safety laws are difficult to solve the complex situation at the time. In response to General Secretary Xi Jinping’s call to "ensure the security of the broad masses of the people’s tongues", on April 24, 2015, the newly revisedFoodSafetyLawofthePeople’sRepublicofChinawas reviewed. Although the newFoodSafetyLawof People’s Republic of China has been implemented for a long time, food safety incidents that occur in reality still cause the public to worry about food safety around them. Rationally analyzing the gap between China’s and EU’s food safety supervision systems and making up for and improving the gaps or unreasonable aspects of China’s food safety supervision to provide people with safe and secure food are not only what the country needs but also the expectation of the public.

4.1 Comparison of food safety supervision modelsThe EU implements a centralized management model for the implementation of food safety supervision. In centralized management mode, information sharing between the EU’s various food safety supervision authorities is efficient. At the same time, they have also achieved separation of powers and responsibilities and do not interfere with each other. Due to the supervision of the same supervision system, the circulation of food is more convenient and extensive. In addition, there are no absolute food safety managers or subordinates in the EU. On the premise of not affecting normal work, all subjects in the food supply chain are involved in food safety supervision. This not only effectively achieves information sharing, but also stimulates people’s sense of autonomy to conscientiously abide by various rules and regulations. In 2004, the State Council issued theDecisionoftheStateCouncilonFurtherStrengtheningFoodSafetyWork, which establishes the principle of "one supervision department being supervised one department" in food supervision work, adopts a supervision method of "segment-based, supplemented by varieties", and clarifies the supervisory responsibilities of all relevant departments of food supervision. This supervision model was recognized by theFoodSafetyLawof 2009 and had been extended until 2015[15]. Although the supervision method has achieved the full supervision of food safety to a certain extent, some scholars still believe that segmentation supervision will lead to the overlapping of duties between departments or the emergence of supervision blank areas[16-17]. After the implementation of the newFoodSafetyLawin 2015, China has changed the supervision model adopted in the past and adopted a unified supervision model. This model better integrates current supervision resources. In theory, it provides a practical basis for the integration of food safety supervision into all aspects of food circulation. However, as far as the current situation is concerned, food safety incidents still occur, and the new model has not well resolved the defects in food safety supervision, such as the mold over-standard case of Three Squirrels and Guangdong fake wine case. In addition, the scope of food safety coverage is becoming wider and wider, and it is far from enough to rely solely on the administrative means of the government.

4.2 Comparison of legal structure of food safety supervision

As various food safety issues continue to occur, it is essential to update and improve relevant laws and regulations in a timely manner so as to effective control food safety and reduce the occurrence of incidents. Since experiencing a series of food safety incidents, the EU’s food safety legal system has become more sophisticated, with strong coherence and integrity[18]. Its legislation covers the entire process from food production to table. At the same time, the food safety supervision responsibilities of various supervisors have been clearly defined in relevantfoodsafetylawsand regulations, effectively avoiding the phenomenon of overlapping of duties of various administrative departments. In addition, the provisions that have not been fully described in its laws and regulations refer to specific items in other laws and regulations, reflecting the good coherence and integrity of the entire legal system. China’s newFoodSafetyLawhas substantially revised 70% of the provisions[19]. In particular, the newFoodSafetyLawhas made major changes to the food safety supervision system and established a strict supervision mechanism throughout the entire process from agricultural production to consumption. The new law introduces the advanced food supervision concept in Europe and America[20], adds basic principles of food safety, including prevention first, risk management, full control and social co-governance, defines clearly the responsibilities of government departments related to food safety, and strengthens grassroots supervision of food safety. In terms of supervision system, various mechanisms such as food safety risk management and full traceability have been added. However, looking at the history of China’sfoodsafetylawdevelopment, the problem of low revision frequency and slow speed has caused the revision of the law unable to keep pace with social progress, resulting in poor legal operability and causing serious problems to the law enforcement layer. One of the most prominent problems is the lack of convergence between the laws and regulations of various departments on the division of supervisory responsibilities and authority. The boundaries of supervisory powers are unclear and cannot be effectively exercised. This directly leads to the duplication of responsibilities in food safety supervision. There are gaps or contradictions in the supervision. Such a phenomenon is still reflected in some contradictions between the newFoodSafetyLawand theConsumerProtectionLaw.

4.3 Comparison of grass-root level law enforcement of food safety supervisionGrassroots law enforcement is the most important part of the implementation of laws and regulations. The results of its law enforcement directly affect the formulation of high-level policies and regulations. Germany is a representative of the EU’s strict supervision of food safety, so it is selected for comparison with China. Comparing the grassroots law enforcement capabilities of food safety supervision in both countries has important reference significance for China. In Germany, the state’s food safety supervision mainly adopts two major methods: production monitoring and sampling and testing. The county-level food safety agencies are responsible for professional supervision. Township-level agencies are responsible for supervising specific matters. For example, Food and Veterinary Supervision Bureau is set up to inspect and sample enterprises in the jurisdiction. The number of random inspections is determined by the company’s food safety risks[21]. Production monitoring is always ready in progress and the resulting test reports are stored in a local database. For non-standard enterprises, the competent authorities take relevant improvement measures according to the seriousness of the situation. If the company’s actions are suspected of committing crimes, it will be handed over to the relevant state departments for processing. China’s newFoodSafetyLawhas made new instructions on the organization of food safety supervision. The county-level food safety supervision departments have allowed the establishment of dispatched agencies in the grassroots areas to facilitate grassroots food safety office, thus making efforts to increase grassroots law enforcement. But from the perspective of grassroots inspections, grassroots food safety supervision can not adapt to the needs of food safety, and its supervision capacity still needs to be strengthened[22]. In the grassroots areas, from the hardware point of view, the rapid inspection equipment, vehicles and work expenses required by law enforcement are relatively tight, equipment is difficult to locate, and law enforcement conditions are poor; and from the software point of view, the grassroots supervision departments are relatively backward in staffing, technical professionalism is obviously insufficient, the staff structure is also relatively old, and the professional knowledge judgment and the application of laws and regulations in food safety are relatively weak. The lack of professionalism makes the law enforcement effect and authority greatly reduced. Third, some regional supervisors are not actively pursuing food safety supervision. The work is perfunctory, floating on the surface, and there is a typical phenomenon of "slothful administration". Some village-level coordinators are under-trained, and their ideological understanding and professional skills cannot keep up, making it difficult to play the role of food supervisors.

4.4 Comparison of food safety standardsFood safety standards are an important technical guarantee for food quality and safety. They are also an important basis for food safety supervision and enforcement. Therefore, comparing food safety standards in China and the EU and finding the gap between the two can improve and optimize food safety supervision and enforcement from the root cause. The EU food safety standards are mainly formulated in accordance with theEuropeanFoodLaw, theTreatiesoftheEuropeanUnion, andFoodHygieneSeriesMeasurespromulgated in 2004. There are two standard forms, horizontal standards and vertical standards. Horizontal standards cover a wide range of overage. For example, they involve genetically modified foods, animal and plant by-products, food additives,etc. Vertical standards are specific to certain safety regulations that have special attributes for production processes, and are more specific. The combination of the two types of standards has become the EU’s sound food safety standards system. However, the EU’s food safety standards system is aimed at the EU as a whole. Each member country has formulated food safety standards in accordance with its own national conditions based on the EU’s food safety standards system. From the EU’s overall food safety standards framework, there is strong unity. In China, the food safety supervision and enforcement effect is not good, which is because that the food safety standards have not fully covered and they are not well connected with other regulations. For food safety supervisors, food safety supervision must be based on sound food safety standards when it is implemented. Otherwise, it will be difficult to carry out scientific and effective food safety supervision, and it will be impossible to make the supervision operate efficiently. The food safety standards have been "blank" in some fields, which makes it easy for some production operators to sieve the standard loopholes to operate illegally. In addition, some food-related quality and safety standards are updated inefficiently. Food safety standard are not well connected to other standards such as industry standards. Due to geographical factors, it is difficult for some food safety standards to be formulated and released by the authorities to form a situation of "same standard for same object", and they are difficult to integrate with international food quality standards.

5 Enlightenment from EU’s food safety supervision system to China

5.1 Establishing a coordinated food safety supervision agency

The food safety supervision of EU member states is subject to the management of EU food safety supervision agencies. Each member country also establishes food safety supervision agencies to monitor food safety according to their national conditions. They are led and coordinated uniformly by EU. The various supervision agencies have clear responsibilities and are docked smoothly. More importantly, the European Food Safety Authority established by the EU is highly independent. It is not supervised by any other food safety supervision agency in the EU, thus creating a purer legislative and enforcement environment. At present, China can learn from its experience. Under the unified supervision mode, a core concept of streamlining and independence can be established. The supervision efficiency can be further improved by streamlining the organizations and enhancing their independence. This not only draws on the advanced experience of EU’s food safety supervision model. At the same time, it has also made a reasonable use of China’s previous supervision models. In the institutional reform plan of the State Council in March 2018, China has established the State Administration of Market Supervision and abolished the State Food and Drug Administration. It can be sent hat this is an effective attempt to streamline the organizations, but there is still room for reform. Attention should be paid to the independence of the establishment of food safety supervision agencies to ensure that they are not affected by other departments. At the same time, it is necessary to optimize the intersection of functions in various supervision departments and try to avoid the situation of shirking responsibilities.

5.2 Improving food safety legal systemFor now, China has established a number of laws and regulations on food itself and its related auxiliary materials. However, these laws and regulations lack effective coordination and convergence, leading to some fluky traders who have sieved the loopholes in the food safety legal system, causing many problems. Therefore, China’s food safety legal system should actively learn from the experience of the EU, striving to establish laws and regulations that cover all aspects of the various food supply chains. China’s food safety legislation management should also start from the suppliers of food supply chains, emphasize the content of full process management, and optimize and strictly control the food market access system. Each food safety supervision department should combine the characteristics of the traceability system to analyze the potential hazards of food safety, and consider whether it is necessary to update and amend the law according to the actual situation. Since the malicious food safety incidents has already been made through improper means, it is necessary to increase efforts to crack down on food safety violations and strictly control food safety violations. In addition, there is also a need to strengthen the interface between food safety regulations and all walks of life in society to provide a strong basis for food safety supervision.

5.3 Establishing a strong supervision department and improving the supervision capacity of the regulatory department

In view of the ineffective supervision of food safety in China, it needs to consider from the department settings first. China should clarify the division of responsibilities between labor and government departments, and streamline and optimize department setup and departmental responsibilities to ensure that supervisors’ work is not restricted by other departments and law enforcement has no limitations. At the same time, it can avoid the phenomenon of shirking caused by overlapping functions. Secondly, it needs to strengthen supervision of food safety supervision authorities and supervise them to supervise and implement food safety work to reduce the phenomenon that some supervisors are "lazy" and do not actively perform their duties. In addition, China should strengthen the construction of administrative law enforcement teams. From the hardware point of view, China should optimize the working conditions and hardware facilities of the food safety supervision authorities. This will not only solve the technical obstacles caused by the lack of equipment in supervision authorities. At the same time, it can also stimulate the enthusiasm of supervisors. From the software point of view, China should strengthen the education of the supervision team and the training of law enforcement personnel, focusing on training legal awareness and theoretical knowledge. In terms of update of supervision team, China should strengthen the publicity of food safety supervision, pay attention to the skill learning of young people, and regularly carry out training programs to provide an inexhaustible new force for the food safety supervision team.

5.4 Updating and implementing timely food safety standards systemThe food safety standard system is an important basis for the implementation of the national food safety supervision authorities. China needs to start from the most basic work, implement standard basic research, and improve the construction of the food safety standard system from aspects of filling the blanks of laws, regulations and standards, updating relevant standards and solving some of the conflicts of laws and regulations. China needs to refer to the EU’s food safety standards and supervision experience, and speed up the formulation and promulgation of basic food safety standards. The localities should then formulate corresponding food safety standards based on the basic standards and local conditions. In terms of coverage, they should not only horizontally fully cover the safety standards of all kinds of foods that appear in China, avoiding absence of standards for supervised food types. At the same time, they should pay attention to the control of all aspects of food circulation from a vertical perspective to systematically establish food standards in various circulation links, avoiding food circulation obstacles. After the local food safety supervision standards are mature, relevant departments need to organize and coordinate the food safety standards of all localities to form a unified whole and inform the food safety supervision departments and the public, avoiding supervision misalignment and trade barriers due to uncoordinated standards.