Ｔｈｉｒｄ Ｅｙｅ ｏｎ Ｗｏｒｌｄｗｉｄｅ Ｆｏｏｄ Ｓａｆｅｔｙ

\"Food counts in people's life，and safety is the utmostimportant.\" Food safety isattracting attention around the globe.Recently， China has been in the limelightagain when global media rampantly re-ported about the food safety problem inthe country.

Not only China but also the wholeworld is facing such a problem. Evendeveloped countries are no exception.Blockbusters included the UK Sudan Redincident and the U.S. poisonous spinachincident in 2005， the US-based KFCtrans-fat incident and the Japanese Fujiyanot fresh-stuff cake incident in 2006.

The countries worldwide arestrengthening food safety， and they havecome up with three models. In somecountries， with the U.S. and Japan asthe chief ones， several departments arejointly in charge of food safety. In suchregions as the EU (European Union) andCanada， an independent division hasbeen set up for food safety. The thirdmodel in trial operation is a comprehen-sive inspection model. But these modelshave not taken shape immediately. It is~vben dealing with numerous food safetyproblems that these countries have cre-ated such models.

The EU has encountered food safetyoroblems frequently although it is oneof the regions with the world's mostcomplete legal system， most developedeconomy， most advanced technology，and highest living level. From late 20thcentury to early 21st century， the regionhas been among the regions with themost food safety problems. Incidents likeBSEostricken beef， Listeria monocyto-genes-stricken meat products， not freshdrink， polluted chocolate， occurred oneby one， which indicated the severe short-comings of the EU food safety policies.

Only after a series of incidents， havethese countries begun to attach more im-portance to food safety and found bugs intheir food safety control. Former regula-tions cast their eye just to products in themarket， instead of raw material safety，animal epidemic prevention， and safeproduction procedure. Therefore， the EUhas kept reforming related regulations.

In the U.S.， a country best known forexcellent food safety， strict mechanismhas been established to supervise the pro-cedure like food production， processing，and testing. However， due to the rapidgrowth in the food industry， the complex-ity of food production， processing， andpackaging， and the increasing proportionof export food in the national consump-tion， the U.S. is still facing the food safetyproblems， including biological pathogenicbacterium， toxin， residue of pesticide，toxic metals， and food spoilage.

Data show that last year， the U.S.returned non-qualified food exportedfrom China， accounting for less than 1%of the total from the country， a propor-tion lower than that of the US-made foodreturned by China.

Even inside the U.S.， some US-made products have been found withexcessive bacteria and sulfur dioxideas well as a moldy appearance， partof which come from a few big brands.This year， the series of food made byUS Castleberry's Food Company maycause the risk of botulinum toxin， theycovered more than 90 categories， suchas Hot Dog Chili Sauce， Pet Food Prod-ucts， Barbecue Pork in Barbecue Sauce，and Canned， and Canned Beef Hash.

With the acceleration of the econom-ic globalization， a food safety incidentcan easily spread from one country to thewhole world. So to solve the modem foodsafety problem depends more largely onan international control system. China isrecently plagued with some food safetysuspicions， but we expect a more global-ized and complete food safety supervi-sion system in the country in the light ofactions by the Chinese government andmanufacturers. We have enough reasonsto trust China-made products. We haveconfidence in China's food safety.