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China gets help with food industry

As the world frets about risky dog food, dumplings and other consumables from China, the Canadian government has been helping the Chinese try to better regulate their vast and troubled food industry, a federal official confirmed yesterday.

Canadian experts have helped draft new food-safety laws touted recently by China, tutored scores of Chinese food-safety authorities and even developed the first training manual for meat inspectors in a country whose livestock output dwarfs that of Canada.

The contract for the latest project, another round of risk-management training at a University of Ottawa institute, was tentatively issued this month. It is all part of a little-known, $20-million aid program run by Agriculture Canada.

With one tainted-food crisis after another hitting China lately, the project launched in 2003 suddenly became an urgent priority for the Asian giant during recent months.

"In the last year, a lot of new laws have come out and they're clamping down," said Dave Wasylyshen, the Winnipeg-based department official who runs the program.

"There's been a lot of change in a short period of time, important change, and they're going to implement it.... Our project has been involved in establishing a lot of those standards."

One outside expert, however, says the kind of guidance offered by Canada may be of little value until China fundamentally overhauls a system in which millions of small suppliers still operate virtually without oversight.

The China-Canada Agriculture Development Program was started after the country joined the World Trade Organization.

Although it was designed generally to help develop small farming, its chief focus has been on food safety, said Mr. Wasylyshen.

The draft food-safety law unveiled by China in April came about with extensive Canadian input, as did a recently implemented food-recall system, he said.

Training has been provided in topics such as animal health, plant protection, laboratory testing, and plant quarantining. More than a dozen Chinese officials have obtained food-science certificates from the University of Guelph.

Although it is an aid program, the training should ultimately benefit Canadians, too, noted Michael Tyshenko who helps run the courses put on by the University of Ottawa's McLaughlin Centre for Population Health Risk Assessment. Canada imported $835-million worth of Chinese food in 2007, up from $713-million in 2005, according to Statistics Canada.

"If we can help them improve their [food safety] management -- we are the importers of their products -- it's quite important for everyone," said Dr. Tyshenko.

Although Australia and Germany has been involved, too, Canada has been China's chief international advisor on food safety, Mr. Wasylyshen said. Its $20-million contribution is matched by China.

The safety of China's growing exports of food gained intense focus with last year's scandal over tainted gluten from the country, used in dog-food that killed an unknown number of North American pets.

Several Japanese people fell ill early this year after eating dumplings from China that appeared to be contaminated with pesticide, while 13 Chinese babies died in 2004 from eating fake milk powder, and chemical-tainted Chinese seafood has been seized by Western governments.

"The challenges are immense, they're enormous and they're on so many different levels," said Drew Thompson, an expert on the Chinese regulatory system at the Nixon Center think tank in Washington, D. C.

The problem is that China's agriculture and food-processing industries are spread over a huge number of small farms and plants scattered throughout the country, said Mr. Thompson. While large factories in big cities may be well run and regulated, the smaller sub-suppliers are much less so, partly because China does not have the resources to monitor them all, he said.

Small-scale farmers initially prospered when China phased out collectivization and allowed private enterprise but increased competition and falling prices have pushed many to cut corners, he said. An uneducated farmer, for instance, may buy banned pesticides or other chemicals from suppliers without really knowing they are dangerous, said Mr. Thompson.

Until China develops some kind of system to ensure safe practices even at the smallest, most local level, the food contamination problem will not go away, he said.

Tags · Feed Quality · Pet Feed · China<p>As the world frets about risky dog food · dumplings and other consumables from China · the Canadian government has been helping the Chinese try to better regulate their vast and troubled food industry · a federal official

28.05.2008. 13:13