CHINA REVEALS FIVE-YEAR PUSH TO BOOST FOOD AND DRUG SAFETY
By Mure Dickie in Beijing
Thursday, June 07, 2007
中國公布五年規劃推進食品藥品安全

International concern over exports of contaminated Chinese ingredients used in pet food and toothpaste has spurred Beijing to publish its first five-year plan for improving food and drug safety.
中國受到污染的寵物食品原料和牙膏出口國外，引起了國際社會的擔心，促使中國政府公布了首個提高食品藥品安全的五年規劃。

The state council's framework for regulation of food and pharmaceuticals is part of longstanding efforts to address what officials acknowledge are “severe” safety problems.
中國官員承認，食品藥品方面存在“嚴重的”安全問題，而國務院公布的這項食品藥品監管規劃，就是中國為解決這一問題所付出的長期努力的一部分。

However, Beijing officials have in recent days also highlighted the international implications of incomplete inspection systems, lagging regulation and undisciplined food producers.
不過，中國政府官員近日還強調了國際社會暗示的檢查制度不完善、監管滯后以及食品生產商目無法紀等問題。

“Food safety is not just an issue of law enforcement, it is also related to the health and safety of the people, to the nation's image and to bilateral and even multilateral political relationships,” said Li Changjiang, head of China's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine.
國家質量監督檢驗檢疫總局局長李長江指出：“食品安全工作不僅是執法把關問題，而是涉及到人民健康安全，涉及到國家形象，甚至涉及到雙邊甚至多邊政治關系的問題。”

Singapore this week banned the sale of three brands of Chinese-made toothpaste that contained a poisonous chemical, diethylene glycol. The move followed similar action by Latin American countries and a warning from US regulators that toothpaste containing the chemical could be harmful.
本周，新加坡禁止銷售三個品牌的中國牙膏，因為其中含有一種有毒化學物質——二甘醇。此前，一些拉丁美洲國家也采取了類似行動，而美國監管機構曾警告稱，含有這種化學物質的牙膏可能對人體有害。

In April, pet food that included additives from China apparently contaminated with the industrial chemical melamine was blamed for poisoning thousands of US cats and dogs.
今年四月，含有中國產添加劑的寵物食品被指責為毒死數千只美國貓狗的元兇，而這些添加劑明顯受到工業化學物質三聚氰胺污染。

Worries about dangerous food and drug products have been widespread in China for years, and Wen Jiabao, the premier, has made pledges of tougher action a regular feature in his annual “work report”.
在中國，對食品和藥品安全問題的擔憂已經普遍存在很多年。中國國務院總理溫家寶曾在年度“工作報告”中保證，要把更嚴格的行動作為一種經常性措施。

The release by the state council, or cabinet, of the first “five-year plan” specifically addressing food and drug safety is intended to focus bureaucratic efforts on improving and more strictly implementing supervision of the two industries.
國務院公布的這份規劃，是中國首個專門解決食品藥品安全問題的“五年規劃”，旨在把政府部門的努力集中在提高并更嚴格地執行對這兩個行業的監管上。

The plan, approved in April but not made public then, does not mark a dramatic shift in emphasis.
這份規劃今年4月即已獲批，但當時并未公布。它在側重點上并沒有明顯變化。

But it does call for the creation of systems to monitor food exports that might transmit disease and for residues of drugs in agricultural products and livestock shipments, as well for the “electronic monitoring” of food processing companies.
不過，規劃呼吁建立監測制度，對可能傳播疾病的食品出口進行監測，對船運貨物的農獸藥殘留進行監控，并對食品加工企業進行“電子監管”。