Running head: THE SAFETY PROBLEM OF CHINESE FOOD

The Safety Problem of Chinese Food:

Should the Governments Take the Responsibility?
Kecheng Liang
Purdue University

Miss Park
ENGL 10600i
Dec. 7

THE SAFETY PROBLEM OF CHINESE FOOD

Should the Governments Take the Responsibility

of Chinese Food Safety Problem?
There was a famous old saying in China," People are the basic of a country, food
is the basic of the people, and security is the basic of the food." It shows the
importance of food safety in human life. But here are some shocking statistics about
Chinese food safety. In Chia Daily data base between 1970 -2010, there are nearly
seven thousand food safety news in ten thousand news which related Chinese Food.
Since I am interested in this topic, I read many articles about this issue and conducted
an interview with Jason Wu who is a junior student at Purdue University. The purpose
of this paper is to prove that the government should take the responsibility of Chinese
food safety problems. Based on what I learned from my research, I would argue that
Chinese government should take the responsibility of Chinese food safety problems.
Tianyi Chen (Nov. 15, 2009) pointed that it is not governments fault, the
company add some chemical material which is harmful to consumers. So in this point
of view, the company should take the responsibility for the scandals. But Pei etc.
(2011) pointed out in his article, the company should not add melamine in the product,
and also, the government should take the responsibility to regulate the company and
force them not to do this. Governments strict regulation can let the company stop
adding harmful materials. As Pei etc. (2011) said, the government have to restraint the
company and make the rules, to propose tougher punishments to those companies and
make sure that consumers can buy healthy and safe food.
According to a research conducted by Jinjing Deng (June 19, 2012), consumers

THE SAFETY PROBLEM OF CHINESE FOOD

are rely on governments. Most of them think the governments are always right. The
consumers have the highest value for government certification followed by a national
brand. But as Ortega etc. (2011) said in his paper, if there is a third party
non-government certification program, consumers will also trust it. That means, the
government should take the most responsibility for food safety problem. When the
consumers always trust the government certification, the government should make the
responsibility for these food scandals because most of the companies have exemption
for inspection mark. Because of the reduced Chinese consumers trust in food
industry, the Chinese government should attached more and more attention to food
safety.
The duty of the government is to offer the service to the citizens (Halzack, 2014).
When citizens face some safety problem, they should take the responsibility for them
(Bai etc. 2007). The government should make people who live in the country safe and
comfortable. It is a failing government if it could not offer the security which is the
first duty. Hence, it is obviously that the government should take the responsibility
when the food safety issue happened.
Fortunately, the data showed that the status of food safety in China become more
positive, but the government still faces a lot of serious challenge. The government
should make more efficient regulation which is not only regulate the big companies
but also the mini companies and workshops (Personal Interview October 19, 2014). It
is necessary for government to do this. And if government can establish a better food
safety systems in China, healthy food would develop faster than before, and make the

THE SAFETY PROBLEM OF CHINESE FOOD

food become world standards (Ortega etc. 2011).

References:
Bai, L., Ma, C., Gong, S., & Yang, Y. (2007). Food safety assurance systems in
China. Food Control, 18(5), 480-484. Retrieved from
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0956713506000089.
Deng, J. (2012, June 19) The future of Chinese food. China Daily. Retrieved from
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/hqzx/2012-06/19/content_15511206.htm
Gough, N. (2014, August 28) Food Safety Is Crucial in China Deal for Baby Milk.
The New York Times. Retrieved from
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/28/business/international/food-safety-is-crucial
-in-china-deal-for-baby
milk.html?module=Search&mabReward=relbias%3Aw%2C%7B%222%22%3A
%22RI%3A16%22%7D&_&_r=0
Halzack S. (2014, October 8) Would you trust chicken from a KFC in China? The
Chinese still dont. The Washington Post. Retrieved from
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/business/wp/2014/10/08/would-you-trustchicken-from-a-kfc-in-china-the-chinese-still-dont/.
Ortega, D. Wang, H. Wu, P. Bai, J. and Olynk, N. (2011) Got (Safe) Milk? Chinese
Consumers Valuation for Select Food Safety Attributes. Selected Paper
prepared for presentation at the Southern Agricultural Economics Association
Annual Meeting. Retrieved from
http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/bitstream/98723/2/Ortega%20et%20al%20SAEA%

THE SAFETY PROBLEM OF CHINESE FOOD

202011.pdf
Pei, X., Tandon, A., Alldrick, A., Giorgi, L., Huang, W., & Yang, R. (2011). The
China melamine milk scandal and its implications for food safety
regulation. Food Policy, 36(3), 412-420. Retrieved from
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306919211000479.