Delivering an Effective, Resilient and Sustainable EU-China Food Safety Partnership

Objectives

The overall goal of EU-China-Safe was to develop and implement a shared vision of best practice within the EU and China that will enhance food safety, deter food fraud, restore consumer trust, deliver mutual recognition of data and standards and support the flow of agri-food trade between the two trading blocks to promote economic growth.

The project focussed on the most commonly reported foods linked to chemical and microbiological contamination and fraud; dairy products and infant formula, processed meat, vegetables, wine, honey and spices.

EU-China-Safe set out to build the core components needed for a joint EU-China food safety control system comprising: control management, food legislation, food inspection, food control laboratories, and food safety and quality information, education and communication.

The project further aimed to define a common framework for harmonization and visualization of data that will enable convergence of standards and practices. Substantial knowledge transfer and training actions will build high-level and long-term collaboration, synergies and trust between a wide range of EU and China actors. Innovative traceability tools will strengthen the most vulnerable supply chains. New or improved detection capabilities for chemical/microbiological hazards and food fraud will be implemented in a harmonised way across the EU-China network. Trade barriers caused by food safety and fraud issues will be analysed and recommendations of how to predict and prevent future events disseminated.

The goal was that these advances, in addition to a wider range of confidence building measures towards food safety, authenticity and transparency, will address consumer expectations and facilitate an expansion of EU- China trade.