CHINA – China has enacted its Revised Law on the Quality and Safety of Agricultural Products that will essentially strengthen food safety protocols through certification and traceability systems.
The law, which was first passed in 2006, has been essential in enhancing rural economies and safeguarding the safety of food.
The revised law strengthens the responsibilities of local authorities and business operators in ensuring the quality and safety of agricultural products during the entire process from production to consumption.
Yue Zhongming, an official with the NPC Standing Committee’s Legislative Affairs Commission, said the law included farmers in the scope of supervision, stipulating that enterprises and cooperatives of agricultural production should be responsible for the quality and safety of agricultural products.
In addition, operators who sell agricultural products on e-commerce platforms shall assume responsibility for the quality and safety of their products.
The law mandates that municipal bureaus of agriculture and rural affairs be informed of the results of risk assessments regarding the quality and safety of agricultural products, in addition to market monitoring and health agencies.
The quality and safety of agricultural goods should be better supervised and managed throughout the process by county-level agricultural and rural affairs officials.
According to Yue, random inspections of agricultural goods’ quality and safety need to be improved, and samples should be procured at market rates.
The China Animal Health and Food Safety Alliance (also CAFA) noted that with the implementation of the bill, China has officially entered the “Certificates” era.
CAFA is a government-backed organization directly under the Chinese National Agricultural Science Technology Innovation Alliance initiated by the Ministry of Agriculture of the People’s Republic of China, which aims to build a trustworthy platform that connects the government, industry associations, producer enterprises, and research institutes in the food sector.
In 2020, CAFA welcomed VeChain, the world’s leading enterprise-friendly blockchain platform as one of the council members.
As a council member, VeChain was made the sole public blockchain technology provider in the alliance, providing technical and infrastructural support for the council members. The enterprise is also spearheading China’s food traceability certification era.
Reacting to the news, VeChain community member “Eisenreich” on Twitter notes that the latest legislation is bullish for VeChain.
The influencer emphasized that VeChain and CAFA have already built a solution for implementing the law.
The platform, which was introduced in 2019, has grown into a potent tool for company owners to incorporate the VeChainThor public blockchain into current business processes.
VeChain ToolChain offers built-in, ready-to-use templates and customizable tools, allowing every food enterprise to quickly achieve full lifecycle traceability for their supply chains at a controllable cost, based on the experience of working with large enterprises like Walmart China Food Traceability Platform and Foodgates.
It enables the more than 130 business members of CAFA to log crucial food production processes on the blockchain. These comprise information on its production, packaging, shipping, and sale.
To date, the platform has aided in building confidence between clients and businesses while ensuring high-quality food.
This accomplishment was hailed as ground-breaking in the usage of blockchain technology for real-world cases in a recent academic article.
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