China Drafts New Food Safety Regulations

China has drafted a set of regulations to protect the safety of imported and exported food products.

According to the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, the regulation covers the import and export of food additives, food products, grains, fruit and live animals intended for human consumption.

The draft requires export food producers to record purchases of raw materials, food additives, packaging, production processes and inspections of products if done prior to shipping, reports official Chinese news agency Xinhua.

Farms that provide raw materials for exported food products need to keep similar records and must be registered with inspection and quarantine departments.

The farms have also been ordered to set up an epidemic inspection system.

The draft has also set a provision to impose fines of up to CNY30,000 ($4,400) on food exporters found to have improperly used agricultural chemicals, materials from unregistered providers or to have forged records and certificates.