Xi Jinping's anti-graft campaign can improve food safety in China

China's food-processing industry remains 15 years behind non-food counterparts, according to a Hong Kong-based quality-control specialist hired by factory customers. AsiaInspection says more than 48 per cent of mainland food-processing factories failed to meet acceptable safety standards in 7,000 audits, tests and inspections last year. It is therefore not surprising that the country remains plagued by food-safety scandals and lax standards, long after ensuring food security for the country's 1.3 billion people.

It comes as a breath of fresh air therefore to hear of real progress in efforts to curb pesticide levels in fresh vegetables, even if it is uneven. According to a Greenpeace study, while a third of vegetable samples taken from Guangzhou markets still returned excessive pesticide levels, those sold in Shanghai in particular and also Beijing had become much safer. Shanghai, for example, has enabled consumers to track where their vegetables were grown, and promoted less toxic pesticides to large-scale producers within and outside the city.

Similar measures need to be adapted effectively for the smaller, individual farmers in Guangzhou who tend to use pesticides more intensively on the basis of experience or pesticide dealer promotions.

Unsafe food factories cannot be blamed on failure by the authorities to strengthen the regulatory and licensing regime. Sadly, however, regulatory rigour may be part of the problem, insofar as it creates the temptation for corruption of officials with payoffs to allow manufacturers to cut corners. In the short term, the authorities should look at streamlining regulation to improve compliance, and toughening enforcement by summarily shutting down sub-standard factories. In the longer term, until China deals with official graft, food safety will remain a serious problem. In that respect, an apparent improvement last year may be attributable to President Xi Jinping's unprecedented crackdown on corruption. Hopefully, this can be the catalyst for a breakthrough.