Customers in 10 Chinese cities can now get a clear idea about how their meat and vegetable products arrive at their table, as part of the latest effort to improve the country's food safety.
The Ministry of Commerce signed agreements on Thursday with mayors from 10 pilot cities to push forward a meat and vegetable tracking system in supermarkets.
Through a tracking code on the receipt of their vegetable and meat purchases, customers can track all stages of the food ranging from production to distribution, through the Internet or other terminals in stores.
The 10 pilot cities involved are Shanghai, Dalian, Nanjing, Wuxi, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Qingdao, Chongqing, Kunming and Chengdu.
Minister of Commerce Chen Deming said the safety assurance system, which is key to people's livelihood, will gradually be expanded nationwide.
The government will work toward building uniform standards across the country to implement the tracking system, Chen said.
Similar risk-management systems will also be expanded to sectors such as healthcare, he said.
The latest "traceable, verifiable and responsible" system will allow the government to identify food sources when unsafe products are found. This will help avoid unsafe food reaching more customers.
Food safety has become a major concern among Chinese customers following several scandals in the industry, including melamine-tainted milk and contaminated cowpeas.
RSA Group, a British insurance company, released a global risk survey earlier this week that showed unsafe food being a leading risk for Chinese people, second only to earthquakes.
(中国日报网英语点津 Helen 编辑)
About the broadcaster:
Nelly Min is an editor at China Daily with more than 10 years of experience as a newspaper editor and photographer. She has worked at major newspapers in the U.S., including the Los Angeles Times and the Detroit Free Press. She is also fluent in Korean.