National Food Safety Risk Monitoring Reference Lab Seminar Was Held

To improve the performance of the national food safety risk monitoring reference, CFSA held the national food safety risk monitoring reference lab seminar from May 6^th to 7^th 2015 in Enshi, Hubei Province.

The food safety department of National Health and Family Planning Commission (NHFPC) Mr. Zhiqiang Zhang and vision deputy director Mrs. Jiao Xu, CFSA assistant director general Mrs. Ning Li, the deputy inspector of Hubei Province Health and Family Planning Commission Mr. Mingliang Yang and the lieutenant governor of Enshi City Mrs. Xiaoyan Chen attended the meeting and made speech. More than 40 representatives from NHFPC, Hubei Province HFPC, Enshi City HFPC and CFSA attended the meeting.

Mr. Zhiqiang Zhang affirmed the vital function of reference lab monitoring data in insuring food quality. NHFPC has always paid close attention to the monitoring of food quality and established the national food safety risk monitoring reference lab system based on international practice. Six provincial CDCs were assigned to take the responsibilities on quality control, monitoring result check, technique training, and new method study: Beijing (veterinary drugs, detrimental elements, illegal additives), Shanghai (pesticide residue), Guangdong (heavy metal), Jiangsu (organic pollution), Zhejiang (mycotoxin), Hubei (dioxin). This meeting is the milestone of risk monitoring and quality management and will prompt reference lab to have greater effects.

Mrs. Ning Li indicated that NHFPC honored national food safety monitoring reference lab to six organizations from Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Hubei and assigned them to take the responsibilities and power to do the related work of national food safety risk monitoring reference. CFSA was also assigned to take the responsibility of technique management. To set up the system of reference administration, it is crucial to make electing standards and the management of reference labs clear. Except eight reference labs have already been set up, there should establish the reference lab system in other fields such as chemistry, microbiology and parasite. Hopefully, the quality of monitoring will escalate under the guidance of CFSA and NHFPC.

At the seminar, China CDC researcher Mr. Zhen Zhu shared WHO measles/urticarial reference lab and online lab managing experience; National Institute of Metrology, China (NIM) vice researcher Mr. Xiaohua Lu introduced the requirement and basics of making quality control product; CFSA reference lab representative Mr. Baifen Huang introduced reference working delicately. Seminar attendants also hotly discussed over topics of “reference laboratory management for food safety risk monitoring”, “food safety risk monitoring referece laboratory technical ability verification procedures” and “provincial health department of food safety risk monitoring work assessment grading rules”.

Seminar attendants agreed to the effectiveness of this seminar in sharing the referential experience with related organizations and increasing reference lab abilities.