Food safety issues can arise at any stage of the supply chain. If regulation fails to keep pace in other areas, simply slapping heavy fines on individual street vendors is a superficial fix that addresses the symptoms, not the root cause, and will not solve food safety problems.
For years, China has prioritised the volume of agricultural production over quality, with safety standards taking a back seat to output. Without shifting this mindset, it will be difficult to see any significant improvement in food safety regulation.
Food traceability is another crucial tool for enhancing food safety, but it is notoriously difficult to implement in practice. First, the sheer volume of data combined with a lack of standardised protocols makes it hard to achieve system interoperability. Second, while medium to large farms can trace their produce relatively easily, smallholder farmers and scattered plots face significant operational hurdles.
Without accurate data, many pesticide residue tests are essentially a shot in the dark. Inspectors can only rely on experience to guess which pesticides a farmer might have used and test accordingly. If the guess is right, the test yields valuable results; if it’s wrong, the effort is wasted.
A farmer in Zhejiang was fined 50,000 yuan for selling self-raised pigs for a profit of just 700 yuan; a retired man in Luoyang, Henan, was hit with an 110,000 yuan fine after making 21 yuan from selling vegetables; and several restaurants were fined 5,000 yuan each for adding shredded cucumber to liangpi (cold skin noodles)… Recent news reports have been full of similar cases. Behind these staggering fines lies a deeper public anxiety over food safety. Are the vegetables in our markets safe? What regulatory measures are actually in place? And beyond relying on the official inspection system, what else can consumers do to better safeguard what ends up on their dinner plates?
On 27 July, Foodthink partnered with Tencent News’s programme *Let’s Chat Science* to host a discussion exploring food safety. Our panel included anthropologist Zhong Shuru, who researches wet markets and sustainable food systems; expert lawyer Zhang Xueming, deputy secretary-general and executive council member of the Beijing Food and Drug Safety Rule of Law Research Association; and rural entrepreneur Li Jie. Together, they examined the issue from the perspectives of legal regulation, food traceability, and practical tips for buying groceries.
Foodthink will publish a two-part recap of this roundtable discussion over the weekend. This article covers the first half.
This discussion also follows our recent involvement in the revision of the *Measures for the Supervision and Administration of Quality and Safety in the Market Sale of Edible Agricultural Products*. Thanks to the feedback we submitted during the revision process, “dried fish, dried vegetables, and dried fruit” can continue to be sold. We hope that future legislation will be a little more “friendly” towards small-scale farmers who produce and sell their own goods.
Roundtable guests
Zhang Xueming
Expert lawyer, executive council member and deputy secretary-general of the Beijing Food and Drug Safety Rule of Law Research Association.
Zhong Shuru
Anthropologist specialising in wet markets and sustainable food systems.
Li Jie
Cooperative director and rural entrepreneur, formerly a village-based development worker.
Host
Wang Hao
Foodthink editor.
I. Why is food safety regulation so difficult?
Wang HaoRecently, a retired man in Luoyang, Henan, was fined 110,000 yuan for selling vegetables with excessive pesticide residues, despite making just 21.05 yuan in profit (the penalty was later overturned on appeal). Some argue that food safety is no minor matter and warrants heavy fines to act as a deterrent, while others view this as “heavy punishment for a minor offence” and a textbook example of rigid enforcement. So, what is the real situation for small street vendors when it comes to food safety? Can they effectively manage the quality of the vegetables they sell?Zhong Shuru: First of all, individual market stallholders may not know whether the vegetables they are selling contain pesticide residues, unless they grew the produce themselves. Having visited numerous fresh produce markets across the country, I have come to understand that the provenance of produce sold at market stalls is highly complex. It might be grown on their own land or by nearby farms and transported straight to the stall; or it could come from wholesale markets, where the supply chain often involves multiple tiers. Some produce comes directly from primary wholesalers, while other items may pass through second- and third-tier wholesalers, changing hands several times before reaching the stall. Consequently, vendors are often unaware of the background information. If a stallholder is heavily fined without any knowledge of the issue, they are indeed rather innocent. It is important to recognise that food safety risks can emerge at any point in the chain. Most likely, of course, at the production end—namely, the farming stage. However, problems can also arise during storage, retail, and other stages. This is particularly true for seafood and cooked foods, which may suffer from food safety issues due to deliberate or accidental mishandling during processing or preservation. Enforcement practices also vary significantly across regions. In some areas, when an issue arises, authorities trace the problem upstream to locate the vendor’s immediate supplier. In others, regulators simply issue the fine directly to the stallholder.
Where oversight of other stages falls short, merely issuing heavy fines to individual vendors or attempting to regulate them through mandatory purchase records are measures that treat the symptoms rather than the cause. They are fundamentally incapable of resolving food safety issues.
Wang HaoUnder the newly revised Administrative Measures for the Quality and Safety Supervision over the Market Sale of Edible Agricultural Products, centralised markets are also required to conduct random sampling on produce lacking quality compliance certificates, permitting sale only after it passes inspection. What is the current state of such regulatory measures in practice?Zhong Shuru: Overall, given the long supply chain and complex distribution channels, food safety regulation is indeed quite complicated. The new administrative measures require centralised markets to conduct random sampling on produce sold by small vendors. From what I understand, sampling within markets falls into two categories. The first is routine daily sampling: each market maintains its own testing team. These staff are trained by government authorities and use specialised test strips each day to sample different categories of produce, uploading their records to a central system. Any issues found must be addressed promptly. The second is unannounced inspections, carried out by higher-level enforcement agencies (Market Regulation Bureaus). These teams conduct surprise sampling without prior notice, forming a crucial safeguard for market food safety. Furthermore, food traceability is also a comparatively important measure for strengthening food safety. I know that some prefecture-level cities in Guangdong province have previously attempted to establish city-wide traceability systems. For instance, at each market stall, scanning a QR code would reveal the product’s journey: which distribution channels it passed through, which wholesale tiers it moved through to reach that stall, and even its specific region of origin. In an ideal scenario, it could be traced all the way back to a specific farm. Unfortunately, implementing such a traceability system poses considerable practical difficulties. There is a lack of interoperability between the information systems of different prefecture-level cities and major wholesale markets. Traceability standards also vary between markets, hindering effective data transmission and often causing the information chain to break.
Li Jie: Regarding the traceability of agricultural products, my experience running a farmers’ cooperative in a rural village suggests that larger-scale farms are relatively easy to trace. However, when dealing with smallholder farmers, traceability becomes extremely challenging. Take our loofah cultivation as an example: each household typically farms only around an acre of land. Every household uses different pesticides and fertilisers, and even the chemicals applied in one season may differ from the previous one. Therefore, implementing traceability oversight for scattered smallholders remains a significant hurdle.
● This year, national standards for pesticide residues across a range of foods have been successively revised. Foodthink has previously examined the impact of relaxing the limits for garlic chives. For full details, see “Pesticide residue limits raised 24-fold: are garlic chives still safe to eat?”Wang HaoLawyer Zhang, having participated in the revision of the *Law of the People’s Republic of China on Quality and Safety of Agricultural Products*, how do you view the challenges currently facing the regulation of food safety in agricultural products?Zhang Xueming: I have been studying the revision of the *Law on Quality and Safety of Agricultural Products* for seven or eight years. Two years ago, I also had the honour of taking part in the revision and consultation process organised jointly by the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs. Oversight of agricultural product quality is primarily split into two areas: the production phase falls under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, while the distribution phase is managed by the market supervision system, commonly referred to as the Administration for Market Regulation. This division of regulatory responsibilities between the two stages may also complicate the challenges of food safety oversight. The greatest hurdle in regulating the quality of agricultural products during the production phase is fundamentally cultural. China, with its population of 1.4 billion, has long regarded food security—simply putting enough food on the table—as its paramount concern. As a result, quantity has consistently been prioritised over quality. Officials’ performance metrics have traditionally focused on whether yields increased or fell. This ingrained mindset places volume first and quality second, frequently meaning quality is sacrificed to meet production targets. Therefore, improving quality oversight in the production phase begins with shifting this fundamental perspective. Without shifting this quantity-over-quality mindset, significant improvements in food safety regulation will remain elusive.
In the distribution chain, the primary challenge lies in information. Market regulators rely heavily on testing to monitor quality and safety. For instance, confirming whether pesticide or veterinary drug residues exceed safe limits requires laboratory analysis. Yet there are nearly 3,000 different pesticides on the market; according to 2015 customs figures, imported varieties alone topped 1,000. Given the sheer range of chemicals accessible to farmers, regulators cannot possibly screen for every single compound. Even targeting just 20 to 30 substances would drive testing and time costs sky-high. Consequently, without precise data, much of our testing remains largely guesswork. Regulators must rely on experience to anticipate which pesticides farmers might have used, then design tests accordingly. Typically, there is an established understanding of which pests affect which crops and what treatments are typically applied. If the assumption is correct, the testing yields valuable results; if not, resources are wasted. Hence, securing accurate records of chemical application is vital.
Exactly which chemicals are applied to agricultural produce, and who holds this data? In principle, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs oversees the entire chain—from pesticide manufacturing and distribution to final application by farmers—and this should be traceable. To effectively address food safety oversight, collaboration between agricultural and market regulators must be strengthened. When agricultural authorities conduct quality monitoring, that data should be shared with market regulators. I raised this point during the consultation process: regulatory intelligence must be interoperable. Articles 13 and 15 of the newly enacted *Law on Quality and Safety of Agricultural Products* explicitly address this. Nevertheless, implementation will take time following the recent revision. Given that it spans two separate departments, the State Council will inevitably need to issue concrete guidelines on how monitoring data should be shared.
On the subject of data sharing, there is also the food safety traceability system that Professor Zhong recently mentioned. From a safety perspective, both regulators and consumers want timely, accurate visibility into every stage of a product’s journey. Yet currently, implementing traceability in the food sector remains exceptionally challenging, largely due to the absence of concrete standards. The sheer volume of data in the food industry demands a massive database. Without a unified framework, even initiatives by individual organisations merely create data silos, preventing effective integration across regions and supply chain stages. Worse still, this fragmentation can foster grey-market activities, such as the illegal buying and selling of QR traceability codes—an issue previously highlighted in the media.
Furthermore, information gaps extend to food packaging. Inaccurate labelling can itself pose safety risks. For instance, if a product contains sugar but fails to declare it, a consumer with diabetes could face serious health complications. Similarly, if certain allergens are omitted or unclear in the ingredients list, an allergic individual could be put at immediate risk.
II. How can everyday consumers safeguard their dinner tables?
Wang HaoAs outlined above, food safety oversight and governance in China still face a considerable number of challenges. Beyond hoping for effective reforms by the government at regulatory, legal, and institutional levels, what can we, as everyday consumers, do to safeguard our own tables? I’ll now invite our guests to share, from a consumer’s perspective, how they navigate food safety issues in their daily lives.Zhong Shuru: In everyday life, consumers tend to occupy a rather passive position. This begins with mindset. Having interviewed numerous consumers, I find their attitude towards food safety has largely become one of resignation: “This is how things are; it’s unlikely to change. If I run into a problem, I’ll just count myself unlucky.” Such an attitude is surprisingly common, yet it amounts to willingly surrendering a precious right: the right to safeguard one’s own dietary safety. Regardless of the current climate, we must adopt a proactive stance, sharpen our awareness of food safety, and make a concerted effort to take charge of our eating habits. We should not simply hand over the decision of what we consume to others. For those with the means to cook, preparing meals at home as often as possible is advisable. Relying constantly on eating out leaves both ingredient selection and preparation in others’ hands, significantly increasing the risk of issues.
Furthermore, to eat safely, healthily, and well, consumers need to sharpen their discernment and seek out better food sources. I personally enjoy browsing at local markets, opting for produce that is local and in season. I also recommend cultivating long-term buying relationships with familiar vendors to build mutual trust; this, too, is a practical strategy.
Beyond the market, it is also worth exploring supply channels from smaller producers such as Li Jie. Purchasing ecologically farmed or organic ingredients can meaningfully elevate the quality of your diet.
● Vendors in local markets are deeply familiar with their daily trade. Building good relationships with them can also provide valuable knowledge and information about food. See Zhong Shuru’s earlier article for Foodthink, Why do we need local markets? An anthropologist’s fieldwork observations. Photo: Kong XiaoyanZhang Xueming: As consumers seeking to protect our own tables, we should make an effort to learn about food safety legislation so that we can use legal channels to safeguard our rights when issues arise. Beyond that, consumers need to actively educate themselves on food safety: learn how to read labels and ingredient lists, and develop a personal toolkit of practical strategies. Whenever possible, it is also beneficial to understand basic agricultural principles. For instance, prioritising seasonal fruit and vegetables over out-of-season produce is a good starting point. When it comes to pesticide residues, the sheer variety of chemicals used makes it extremely difficult to definitively prove whether a crop is safe or unsafe. Given this information gap, the best approach is to opt for vegetables and fruit grown with little or no pesticide application. This requires understanding the characteristics of different crops: what pests they typically encounter, which pesticides might be applied, and at what stages and quantities. In reality, farmers have the clearest idea of which vegetables are safe. Learn as much as you can from them. By thoroughly understanding these crops, you can build your own reliable framework for food safety.
There is a common refrain that food safety must be addressed at the source. But where exactly is the source? It is not solely the responsibility of food and drug regulators or market supervision authorities, nor is it purely an agricultural matter. It spans numerous regulatory bodies and requires collaborative societal governance. While we continue to refine regulatory and governance frameworks, consumers must also take action. By building our own practical knowledge about food and daily consumption, we can play a direct role in ensuring the safety of what we eat.
Compiled by: Hu YunwenUnless otherwise stated, all images are courtesy of Foodthink
Originally published on Tencent News’ Let’s Chat Science
Republished here with permission from Foodthink’s official WeChat account
Zhang Xueming
