How can the government let the people eat with confidence and use with confidence?

Food safety concerns everyone's health. Every "food safety" incident touches the nerves of millions of people, ignites the enthusiasm of various media, and reminds consumers of the question "what else can we eat?"

Food safety refers to ensuring that food will not cause any harm to consumers when used according to its intended purpose. There are not only biological factors such as bacteria, viruses and parasites that may cause harm to human body, but also chemical hazards such as industrial pollutants such as pesticides, veterinary drugs, mycotoxins and toxic metals. Biological factors can grow and reproduce in food and human body, and may cause harm to human body due to the increase of quantity, so pathogenic microorganisms and parasites should not be detected in food. Most chemical hazards can be metabolized in the environment, food and human body, even if they cannot be metabolized, they will generally not increase.

It is impossible and unrealistic to pursue that food is absolutely free of harmful substances, because doing so will make us lose a lot of food, and many people will be malnourished or even lose their lives because they don't get enough food. In fact, any harmful substance needs to reach a certain dose to cause harm to the human body. The greater the toxicity of the substance, the smaller the dose. As long as it does not reach a certain dose, these substances will not cause harm to the human body. It can be said that just because food contains harmful substances does not mean that food is harmful.

In order to control the dose of harmful substances ingested through food below the harmful dose, it is necessary to formulate corresponding food limit standards. The formulation of standards is generally based on the comprehensive evaluation of animal experiments and population epidemiological data. However, due to the short service life, many new chemicals can not be evaluated by population epidemiology, and the maximum ineffective dose of animals can only be obtained through animal experiments and certain analysis. The so-called maximum no-effect dose refers to the highest dose that chemical substances contact human body in a certain way within a certain period of time, and the damage can not be found by modern detection methods and the most sensitive observation indicators. Applying the maximum inactive dose to the human body and establishing the daily allowable intake of the human body is not a simple data movement, but dividing the animal data by 100 times and then applying it to the human body. It should be said that this process has fully reflected the safety of the human body. Through the daily allowable intake, all the ways and quantities of the substance ingested into the human body are analyzed, and finally the limit standard of the chemical substance can be formulated. Some of the standards we currently implement are even stricter than this standard, because many countries regard food standards as a means of trade barriers, and the standards at this time have gone beyond the scope of protecting personal safety. It can be seen that there is still a certain distance between food standards and safety. The chemicals in food must be safe under the standard, even if it exceeds the standard slightly, it will not cause harm to human body.

Sometimes, enterprises and countries will classify food into different grades according to the level of harmful substances in food, but the lowest grade food is also safe. For example, the acid value in the new standard of edible oil in China is as follows: edible oil is divided into grade one, grade two, grade three and grade four. The first grade acid value standard is 0.3, the second grade is 0.5, the third grade 1, and the fourth grade is 3. In other words, edible oil with acid value below 3 is safe for human body. If a grease is rated as a first-class oil, but its acid value is 0.5, we can judge that the grease is unqualified, but we can't say that it is unsafe.

Therefore, in fact, many so-called "food safety incidents" in China can't be called safety incidents strictly. Many of them are illegal food incidents, food adulteration incidents and fake and shoddy food incidents, which of course harm consumers' interests, but not necessarily their health. The main reason for this misleading is that many researchers publish their research results to the public, or many media publish the experimental results of some professional magazines to the public. As we all know, some of these research results are still immature and have not been verified by more people, but the repeatable results can become scientific conclusions.

Of course, even if foreign compounds are not toxic, they will increase the burden of liver and kidney because they have to be excreted by liver and kidney metabolism. So try to avoid taking too many foreign compounds. On the one hand, we should reduce the use of chemicals through good management measures and put an end to the use of banned chemicals; On the other hand, substances that are not allowed to be used in food, such as Sudan red and malachite green, should be registered like medicines, and strictly controlled through sales management to prevent these prohibited substances from flowing into the food production field.

As consumers, there is no need to worry too much about every so-called "food safety incident". We should believe that the products of large enterprises and good brands are much safer than those of unlicensed producers even if there are some problems. At the same time, we should ensure the diversification of food, and don't eat too much of each food, so as to ensure a balanced nutrition and avoid taking too much of a harmful ingredient.

First, a deep understanding of the significance of food safety law

Deeply understand the significance of food safety law from the height of people-oriented and ruling for the people. Food safety is related to public health and life safety. The party and the government have always attached great importance to food safety, adopted various measures to continuously improve the overall level of food safety in China, and made up their minds to let the people eat with confidence. The promulgation and implementation of the Food Safety Law is an important measure to ensure food safety, and it is also a concrete embodiment of implementing Scientific Outlook on Development and governing for the people. Judging from the legislative process of the Food Safety Law, whether it is from paying attention to food hygiene to paying attention to food safety, establishing a food safety supervision system, or soliciting opinions from the society to the simultaneous implementation of the Food Safety Law and its implementing regulations, it fully reflects the great concern of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council for improving people's livelihood and their confidence and determination to ensure people's food safety. We must grasp, deploy and promote the implementation of the food safety law politically.

Accurately grasp the legislative purpose and value concept of food safety law. According to the new situation of food safety, the Food Safety Law aims at the loopholes in food safety supervision, establishes a long-term mechanism and legal barrier to ensure food safety, and improves China's food safety legal system. Only by accurately grasping the legislative purpose of protecting public health and life safety, and deeply understanding the values of prevention first, scientific management, clear responsibility and comprehensive management, can we scientifically understand the position and role of various food safety systems in the supervision chain, further clarify the rights and responsibilities of supervision departments and the rights and obligations of administrative counterparts in practice, and finally form a complete food safety supervision system and a good situation of honesty, law-abiding and strong supervision.

Seriously study the main contents of the food safety law and improve the actual supervision ability.

The supervision system established by the Food Safety Law is a major reform of the current food safety supervision system, which will have a great impact on enhancing the standardization, scientificity and effectiveness of food safety supervision, and at the same time put forward new and higher requirements for food safety supervision departments and their law enforcement personnel to administer according to law. The regulatory authorities must be familiar with the basic contents of the Food Safety Law and clarify the legal responsibilities of food safety supervision. It is necessary to strengthen the legal knowledge, food supervision knowledge learning and professional technical training of food safety supervisors, and improve the administrative ability and law enforcement level of supervisors at all levels.

Two, focus on building a new food safety supervision system.

Clarifying and perfecting the relevant laws and regulations system and constructing and perfecting the food safety supervision system are the core contents of the Food Safety Law and the basic premise of carrying out food safety supervision. The Food Safety Law establishes a food safety supervision system under the unified leadership of the government, which is supervised by health, agriculture, quality supervision, industry and commerce, food and drug supervision and other departments, and the functions of each department have been greatly adjusted. How to build a new food safety supervision system in time and efficiently, and actively and steadily do a good job in functional transfer and system construction of various departments is the top priority of implementing the Food Safety Law at present. This requires all regulatory authorities to proceed from the overall situation, accurately locate and act positively, adjust and change their functions in accordance with the provisions of the Food Safety Law, and make a planned and step-by-step handover of various functions and work between regulatory authorities. Through the integration of the supervision system, we can not only avoid the supervision blank, improve the supervision efficiency, save the supervision resources, but also prevent the overlapping and mutual restriction of functions, so as to better play the effectiveness of the food safety supervision system. At the same time, we should carefully prepare to establish relevant systems to lay a good foundation for the in-depth development of food safety work.

Clarifying and perfecting laws and regulations is an important means to implement the food safety law and establish a long-term mechanism for food safety supervision. All regulatory departments should accurately grasp the statutory functions, strengthen their sense of responsibility, take a proactive attitude, pay close attention to the comprehensive investigation of food safety supervision, grasp the basic situation, find out the existing problems, study and strengthen regulatory measures, and do a good job in the construction of laws and regulations from two aspects. First, clean up the existing laws and regulations. In accordance with the provisions of the Food Safety Law and its implementing regulations, the existing departmental regulations involving food safety supervision should be cleaned up, abolished and revised in time. It is necessary to set a time limit for cleaning up laws and regulations, complete relevant work in time, and avoid the phenomenon of incorrect application of legal basis. Second, according to the actual needs of regulatory functions and regulatory work, we should solve the problems existing in regulatory work by means of reform and development in the construction of laws and regulations. Strengthen investigation and study, scientifically judge the supervision situation, put forward policy requirements and work guidance in food supervision, and let law enforcement personnel effectively solve complex problems. It is necessary to actively put forward opinions and suggestions to the legislative department, constantly refine and implement the specific requirements of the food safety law, and provide institutional guarantee for realizing scientific, authoritative and efficient law enforcement and promoting the scientific development of supervision.

Third, accurately grasp the legal application and legal responsibility.

Correctly grasp the relationship between food safety law and other relevant laws and regulations. The Food Safety Law has established the basic principles and systems of food safety supervision in China at present and in the future, which has a guiding and normative role in other relevant laws and regulations, and the basic spirit of other relevant laws and regulations should be consistent with the Food Safety Law. For example, the Law on the Quality and Safety of Agricultural Products is a special law to regulate the quality and safety of agricultural products. In the field of agricultural product production and processing, if there are clear provisions in the Agricultural Product Quality and Safety Law, the Agricultural Product Quality and Safety Law shall apply; Where there are no provisions, the Food Safety Law shall apply. Another example is the Product Quality Law, which is a general law to standardize and strengthen product quality supervision and management and clarify product quality responsibility. Food safety law is a special law to regulate food safety. According to the principle that special law is superior to general law, food safety law should be applied to food safety supervision. Food safety management of dairy products, genetically modified food, pig slaughter, alcohol and so on. If there are other provisions in laws and regulations, those provisions shall prevail; Where there are no provisions, the Food Safety Law shall apply.

Correctly grasp the relationship between comprehensive coordination and subsection supervision. Food safety supervision is a complex system engineering, and comprehensive coordination and subsection supervision are dialectical unity. On the one hand, without strong comprehensive coordination and lack of linkage of departmental supervision, it is difficult to form a joint force of supervision, and specific supervision will be absent, misplaced and offside, which will easily bury potential safety hazards. The comprehensive coordination department should ensure the continuity and unity of food safety work in accordance with the six responsibilities entrusted by the food safety law and the actual supervision of each link, so that all departments can form a joint force and continuously consolidate the achievements of food safety work. On the other hand, there is no subsection supervision with clear responsibilities, which can not adapt to the regulatory characteristics of long food safety regulatory chain and many regulatory resources, can not effectively mobilize the enthusiasm of various departments, can not form a joint force to deal with many complex problems, and easily lead to poor supervision. Therefore, the regulatory authorities should not only clarify their responsibilities and clarify their thinking according to the division requirements of the Food Safety Law, but also strengthen food safety supervision in the responsibility link. Under the unified coordination of comprehensive departments, give full play to their respective regulatory advantages and strive to ensure the same goal of food safety.

Correctly grasp the relationship between the overall responsibility of local governments and the respective responsibilities of regulatory departments. The Food Safety Law establishes a unified system for local people's governments at or above the county level to be responsible for food safety in their respective administrative areas, with the purpose of strengthening the territorial responsibility of local governments, strengthening the leadership of food safety supervision and overcoming the interference of local protection on food safety supervision. Food safety supervision departments at or above the county level shall, in accordance with their respective division of responsibilities, exercise their functions and assume responsibilities according to law, highlight their respective supervision functions, and establish and improve a responsibility system with consistent powers and responsibilities. The overall responsibility of local governments and the respective responsibilities of regulatory authorities are highly unified and complementary, which requires governments at all levels to regard food safety as an important task of local economic and social development, support regulatory authorities to correctly perform their duties, and create a good law enforcement environment; It also requires all regulatory departments to perform their duties, cooperate closely, have their responsibilities in place, and connect with each other to form a complete regulatory chain and accountability system.

Correctly grasp the relationship between the first responsible person of food producers and operators and the accountability of government administrative supervision. The Food Safety Law clarifies the legal obligations of food producers and operators as the first person responsible for ensuring food safety, regulates food production and operation behaviors more strictly, and urges food producers to engage in production and operation activities in accordance with laws, regulations and food safety standards, pay attention to quality, service, reputation and self-discipline in food production and operation activities, be responsible to the society and the public, ensure food safety, accept social supervision and assume social responsibilities. This system goes hand in hand with the accountability system of government administrative supervision, forming a scientific, reasonable and distinct legal responsibility system, which provides a strong institutional guarantee for investigating food safety responsibility and compensating victims of food safety problems. (Zhang Jingli, deputy director of Qiushi State, US Food and Drug Administration)

Fourth, improve the binding force of food safety law.

Before the draft food safety law was promulgated, the management of food safety was not a blank sheet of paper. Relevant laws and regulations include: Food Hygiene Law, Food Safety Management Regulations and other laws that can be applied to food safety. The draft food safety law was revised on the basis of the food hygiene law and renamed according to the revised content and key points. Then, why are food safety problems emerging one after another under the existing laws and regulations, and whether the draft food safety law can solve these problems in a targeted manner is undoubtedly a necessary perspective to judge the effect of the draft food safety law.

First of all, why are food safety problems constantly emerging under the existing laws and regulations? The reason can be summarized as the "prisoner's dilemma" in the production of some local enterprises: the production cost of those enterprises that produce fake and shoddy food is very low, and the possibility of being punished after public relations is very small. Even if they are punished, the pain they can feel is limited, and those enterprises that operate regularly not only have high production costs, but also have great law enforcement inspections. At this time, how will an enterprise that perceives the living environment choose its own production? Is it to maintain collective rationality and insist on producing products that meet the requirements, or to insist on individual rationality and get more benefits at a smaller cost? In the "prisoner's dilemma", enterprises usually choose the latter. Since the "prisoner's dilemma" is one of the reasons why enterprises produce fake and shoddy food, the food safety law should have the power to break this dilemma. On the one hand, laws and regulations must be perfect and law enforcement must be strict. Although the previous "Food Hygiene Law" made some provisions on food safety, these provisions were usually vague, and it was difficult to manage and restrain practical problems. In addition, in the process of implementation, some law enforcers did not apply the legal provisions to reality, resulting in the external effectiveness of the Food Sanitation Law is very limited. Taking this as an example, the food safety law should be more detailed in the legal provisions of what is unsafe food and more determined in law enforcement.

Fifth, increase the illegal cost of food safety.

We must increase the cost of breaking the law and increase the pain of the offenders. Under the "prisoner's dilemma", producers dare to take risks because the benefits of taking risks may outweigh the costs. It is this economic rationality that makes producers give up moral rationality in the prisoner's dilemma. Therefore, the food safety law should also increase the cost of producing fake and shoddy food through punitive damages and use economic leverage to promote the transformation of producers from economic people to moral people. Specifically, the amount of compensation and punishment can be increased. The existing 10 compensation is obviously a controversial amount, because for ordinary consumers, the cost of their rights protection may exceed 10 compensation, and the amount of 10 compensation may not hurt the bones and muscles of interested producers.

In order to protect food safety and break the "prisoner's dilemma" faced by enterprises in production, food safety law needs more specific, strict and feasible provisions, and the implementation of the law must be implemented. The effectiveness of law can have a far-reaching impact on the goal of law enforcement. Without specific and feasible legal provisions, strict law enforcement and lethal legal effect, those enterprises that produce fake and shoddy food will not be in awe of the Food Safety Law at all. The previous food hygiene law is a warning. This is also the reason why some netizens were full of worries when the draft Food Safety Law first began to solicit opinions and suggestions.

First, the supportability of the food safety law

In recent years, food safety incidents such as feeding big-headed babies with inferior milk powder, vermicelli adulterated with chemical fertilizer, many deaths caused by Guangzhou fake wine poisoning, and illegal addition of Sudan red have occurred from time to time, which has caused consumers to doubt food safety. A few days ago, People's Republic of China (PRC) Food Safety Law (Draft) (hereinafter referred to as the "Draft"), another law dedicated to ensuring food safety, following the Product Quality Law and the Consumer Rights Protection Law, is widely soliciting social opinions. What more reliable food safety guarantees will the contents of Chapter X and Article 98 bring to the people? How many new rules are worth looking forward to? Relevant experts have analyzed this. The new regulations will provide more reliable food safety guarantee.

Second, the scientific nature of the food safety law

Kong Xiangpei, deputy director of Guangdong Bureau of Quality and Technical Supervision, pointed out that one of the key issues of food safety is to establish a set of safety mechanism with perfect system and scientific measures. In the draft, a series of systems are determined by law. If the food recall system is established, the recalled food will be destroyed and treated harmlessly to prevent it from flowing into the market again; Establish a unified food safety information release system, and release food safety risk early warning information, food safety accident information or food safety information that may cause consumers to panic in the future; Establish a food safety risk assessment system to assess biological, chemical and physical hazards in food. The evaluation results should be used as a scientific basis for formulating and revising food safety standards and implementing food safety supervision and management, so that it is expected to realize the whole process of food safety from farmland to table.

Third, the severity of the food safety law

The problem of "low illegal cost" of illegal producers in food safety incidents is expected to be solved to some extent. Not only will fines be increased, but criminal responsibility will also be investigated for the production and sale of toxic and harmful food. Deliberately producing and selling food containing substances prohibited by the state, using non-food raw materials to produce food, producing and selling main and auxiliary foods specially designed for infants and young children whose nutritional components do not meet food safety standards, and other serious illegal acts, which constitute a crime, shall be investigated for criminal responsibility according to law; If it does not constitute a crime, the tools, equipment, food raw materials and other articles engaged in production and operation shall be confiscated, and a fine of less than 20 times the value of the goods shall be imposed and the license shall be revoked.

Fourthly, the clarity of food safety law.

The draft stipulates that producers and operators should bear the first responsibility for food safety, and also clearly stipulates that local governments should take overall responsibility for supervision within their jurisdiction. It is stipulated that if local people's governments at all levels fail to perform their duties of food safety supervision and management in accordance with the provisions of this law, and food safety accidents occur many times within their respective administrative areas within one year, which has caused serious social impact, the supervisory organ or the appointment and removal organ shall give the main person in charge of the government and the directly responsible person in charge a disciplinary sanction of gross demerit, demotion or dismissal. There is a long way to go to solve food safety problems, and the draft allows consumers to see more food safety guarantees. Relevant industry experts also pointed out that food safety has always been a worldwide problem, and there is a long way to go to completely solve this problem, and there are still some links in the draft that need to be further improved.

V. Standards of Food Safety Law

"Now China's food safety monitoring system should be based on higher standards in order to play a far-reaching and long-term role." Kong Xiangpei pointed out, for example, that at present, there are more than 500 national standards and industry standards 1000 in China's food industry, and more than 500 industry standards for import and export food inspection methods, but the standards overlap in disorder, and "each plays his own horn and sings his own tune" is often not in line with international standards. Although the draft stipulates unified standards, it does not stipulate integration with international standards. We should seize the opportunity to raise standards and change the current situation that national standards are lower than international standards.

Six, food safety law to curb power inaction

Throughout the previous food safety accidents, the chronic disease of "more than a dozen departments can't manage a table of people" has repeatedly warned that there are loopholes in China's food safety supervision, such as multi-head supervision and mutual shirking. "In order to implement the food safety guarantee in the draft, the key lies in supervision and management, clearer division of labor, clearer responsibilities, smoother channels and higher efficiency." Jiang Liehua, deputy secretary-general of the Consumer Council of Guangdong Province, believes that "the draft clearly strengthens the respective responsibilities of producers, operators and government departments, but it is still necessary to introduce relevant laws and regulations to make the regulatory authorities specific and clear, prevent the crux of overlapping functions, and effectively plug the loopholes of buck passing."

Seven, the food safety law appeal channels need to be broadened.

Huang Zhiwei, legal adviser of Guangdong Consumer Council and lawyer of Guangdong Hebang Law Firm, believes that public supervision should be further strengthened to make power run transparently. The draft gives consumers the right to report and accuse acts that infringe consumers' rights and interests, to know food safety information, to put forward supervision opinions and suggestions, and to obtain compensation according to law. "Judging from the contents of the draft, the channels for consumers' rights demands need to be further broadened and unblocked to ensure that consumers' rights of participation, supervision and expression will not be hollowed out and weakened."

Eight, the punishment of food safety law should be increased.

"Strictness or even harshness is the consistent guiding ideology of food safety legislation in many countries, especially the punishment for relevant responsible parties." Huang Zhiwei, for example, said that a century-old British food company inadvertently sold a batch of unsanitary hot dogs, which caused many consumers to vomit and diarrhea after eating them. The final judgment of the court made the enterprise lose all its money and finally had to close down. Huang Zhiwei pointed out: "Due to insufficient punishment, the punishment of food safety incidents in China often makes people feel that the whip is held high and gently falls, which fails to serve as a warning and deterrent, thus leading to frequent food safety incidents. The draft has made further breakthroughs in penalties, but only by further increasing penalties and implementing penalties can we not rule out relevant regulations. "

Bread is the pillar of life. At present, the draft food safety law is being widely consulted nationwide. Experts generally believe that the upcoming Food Safety Law will make people's "major events" more secure. "Although the introduction of a law cannot immediately eliminate various problems in food safety, it undoubtedly means that food safety in China will embark on a more benign development path." Kong Xiangpei said.

The theory of contradiction mainly educates some people in the Party from the viewpoint of dialectical materialism. Food safety is an increasingly serious social problem in modern society. His truth depends on the government's governance of society and people's ideology and values. As early as the era of rapid capital development, Marx discovered the inherent essence of capitalist society, some inequalities and some ugliness. Businessmen never put the rights and interests of workers before their interests. They exploited and oppressed the working class.

With the rapid development of science and technology and productivity, human beings have created some non-primitive things to meet and enrich the needs of the ever-increasing material world; However, once material wealth can meet people's living needs, there will be contradictions between the expanding material wealth and people's spiritual needs. As the old saying goes; "It's a shame to have plenty of food and clothing."