Chinese and international health experts will meet in Beijing next month to discuss strengthening food safety rules, the head of the World Health Organization said on Thursday.
The Sept. 12-13 talks, which WHO officials said had been planned for a year, follow a string of embarrassing product recalls in China, which has been plagued by safety problems with toothpaste, tires, seafood and toys.
“I’m happy to note that there will be an upcoming meeting in Beijing on food safety issues in September,” WHO Director-General Margaret Chan told a news conference mainly devoted to WHO’s annual report on infectious diseases. “The government of China is committed to improving their system.”
Chinese officials had approached the United Nations health agency, which has been helping “streamline” their regulations for food products, to “see in what way we can strengthen and fast-track that process,” she added.
Jorgen Schlundt, director of the WHO’s department of food safety, told Reuters last month that China had been seriously addressing shortcomings since 2001 and did not deserve to be singled out for particular concern.
The Geneva-based WHO says it receives about 200 reports of tainted food products each month in its 193 member states.
“The globalization of the food supply has vastly complicated the investigation of food-borne diseases and magnified their consequences,” Chain said. “Food items and ingredients in a single meal can come from a host of different countries.”