Stronger chain of collaboration

Consumers have played a critical role in improving food safety in Europe and the United States and are beginning to act in China. Organized consumers have the power to demand safe food, to pressure retailers to provide it, to force farmers to comply with the rules, to work with government to tighten regulations and enforcement and even to get industry to change its products.

Chinese agricultural produce is not only consumed locally - it is also exported. Any produce that fails to meet safety standards in the country to which it is exported is sent back to the supplier or destroyed at the supplier's expense. If it happens more than once, the supplier is blacklisted and loses their market. It is therefore imperative that export produce meets safety standards, and the same should be true for produce destined for local markets.

Ensuring food safety requires a collaborative alliance. Farmers, agro-chemical producers and sellers, food wholesalers, retailers and processers, government authorities, and consumers - can all add constructively to this complex process. Farmers can follow the rules and only use authorized pesticides in the right doses at the right time. Pesticide companies can ensure that their products are of good quality and that appropriate products are available to farmers when they need them. Food traders and processors can guide farmers to comply with rules, and can do their own testing to demonstrate compliance and increase consumer confidence. The government must set realistic rules that farmers and industry can comply with, and must enforce those rules effectively and fairly, so that those who comply are rewarded while transgressors are punished. Finally consumers must demand safe food for all and should pressure all parties to ensure that this happens.

Once we have enough to eat, our next concern is whether the food we eat is safe and of good quality. In a market the size of China there are bound to be occasional slip-ups in food safety. Without excusing those who break the rules, such incidences should help to bring stakeholders closer together so that they can collaborate more closely in achieving universal food safety and building confidence that food in and from China is safe.

The author is senior officer of pesticide risk reduction, plant production and protection division at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.