Heilongjiang Harbin to Focus on Food Quality

The city of Harbin, Heilongjiang province says it will increase food quality monitoring of foodstuffs, such as cooking oil, over a long period to clean up production processes and crack down on illegal operations, Heilongjiang Daily reported on Aug 25, citing local authorities who note that they will set up a database for health food and cosmetics manufacturers to supervise them.

The city says it will also push a campaign to select food quality models and make sure that every town has at least one of these stores as a demonstration site and they are working on restaurant guidelines, to regulate traditional cooking methods and will pick out 50 restaurants to act as examples by the end of this year.

In some areas, such as catering centers, school canteens, and large food delivery services, they will have a remote monitor and control system installed to track the entire from food processing to production to avoid any serious accidents, and will increase inspections of fresh milk, the slaughtering process, use of antibiotics on livestock, and illegal use of clenbuterol, a “lean meat powder”, on pigs.

There will also be random checks on child products, kitchenware, decorations, water conservation, fertilizers, waterproofing materials, gasoline and diesel fuel, and food packaging.

The city government is encouraging the public to report any offenses via hotlines at: 12312, 12315, 12365 and 12331.