21st Century Business Herald:

Food safety is a major issue concerning people's well-being, and implementing food safety responsibilities is fundamental to food safety. What work has the SAMR done to promote the implementation of food safety responsibilities? And what are the work arrangements for the next step? Thank you.

Luo Wen:

Thank you for your questions. General Secretary Xi Jinping has repeatedly emphasized that food safety should be treated as a crucial political task that involves both the Party and government officials assuming responsibilities. He emphasized the need for the strictest standards, oversight, punishment and accountability to ensure food safety . In September last year, the Food Safety Commission of the State Council specially issued a document, making plans for localities to establish and improve a working mechanism featuring tiered, differentiated, targeted control, and end-to-end efforts to promote the fulfillment of local governments' management responsibilities for food safety. At the same time, the SAMR also issued department regulations requiring enterprises to appoint food safety directors and officers in accordance with the law. This ensures that the main responsibility for the company's food safety is fulfilled by the "smallest work unit," meaning people in charge can be identified, problems can be investigated, and responsibility can be assigned. Centering on promoting the implementation of the responsibilities of all parties, we will take the following steps this year.

First, we will see that enterprises shoulder primary responsibility. We will supervise and guide them to formulate a food safety risk management and control list based on factors such as production, business operations, scale, food categories, and risk levels. The list will be incorporated the enterprise's overall production and business operation process. Meanwhile, we will urge enterprises to appoint food safety directors and food safety officers, and see that the food safety officers strictly enforce daily management and control measures, the safety directors conduct weekly investigation, and the person in charge of the enterprise schedules monthly follow-ups. In addition, all these activities shall be recorded and archived in a truthfully manner for future reference.

Second, we will urge local governments to fulfill their due responsibilities within their jurisdiction. Through the implementation of the guarantee system, we divide all food production and operation entities in China into four levels, A, B, C, and D, according to their scale and business type, and correspond to the four levels of guarantee officials at the city, county, township, and village, ensuring that each entity is overseen by officials. At the same time, the system of "three lists plus a letter of commitment" is implemented for officials in charge. The responsibility list specifies which companies each guarantee official will be specifically responsible for. The task list defines the specific tasks of each guarantee official. The inspection list specifies the inspection items from the upper to the lower level. The letter of commitment means that the officials in charge shall sign a responsibility and task commitment letter with the competent authorities and file it for future reference. Adopting the above-mentioned systems allows local governments' responsibilities to be promoted in a specific, practical, and implementable way.

Third, we will strictly implement the responsibilities of relevant departments. We will guide market supervision departments at all levels to focus on the implementation of the "daily control, weekly investigation, and monthly scheduling" system by food enterprises as a key aspect of supervision and inspection. Enterprises that fail to fulfill their main responsibilities in accordance with the regulations shall be ordered to make corrections and, depending on actual circumstances, may face fines, suspension of production and business operations, or license revocation.

In short, through the establishment and improvement of the food safety responsibility sharing and implementation mechanism, we aim to ensure the two "key minorities" of local Party and government leaders, as well as enterprise safety management personnel, truly fulfill their "last-kilometer" responsibilities. By promoting the primary responsible parties to fully exert their power, we can achieve lasting impact on food safety and fundamentally guarantee its security. Thank you.