Representatives from China, the US and the EU signed a new memorandum of understanding (MoU) yesterday, emphasising food safety and giving China access to the EU’s rapid alert system.
At a summit in Brussels, EU Consumer Commissioner Meglena Kuneva, chairman of the US Consumer Product Safety Commission Nancy Nord and China’s vice minister of AQSIQ Wei Chuanzhong signed the MoU to broadcast their commitment to food safety, according to Food Production Daily.
A string of food safety scandals originating in China, such as the most recent melamine-tainted milk debacle, have spurred the country to publicly push for greater safety standards.
The new MoU supplants one signed between the three in 2006, and gives China access to the EU’s Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF).
The system enables fast exchange of information on food safety issues between authorities, and has been running in Europe since 1979.
Traceability, expertise exchange and joint enforcement actions were also topics of discussion at the summit, and the official outcomes from Brussels will be published in a joint statement.
“Trust is the currency of a global economy,” said Ms Kuneva.
“There is no room for complacency, and every week there are alerts which remind us that we must never allow safety issues to slip from the very top of the political agenda.”
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