"Passports" to trace food source
Online "passports" will allow Chinese foods to be traced from their origin.
The online listing is a joint venture between the Shandong Institute of Standardization in China and TraceTracker of Oslo, Norway, and is aimed at highlighting what is in Chinese food products.
ChinaTrace will list the provenance of all Chinese foods, including those that might be involved in the recent melamine-in-milk scandal.
Fang Shi Min, founder of New Threads, a website that exposes fraud and corruption in China, says milk adulteration has been a problem for at least 10 years, first with urea and now melamine. "It’s widely practised and an open secret," he says.
The announcement of the tracker comes as the Chinese face heavy scrutiny over their food production methods, and should help to boost global confidence.
The electronic "food passports" will indicate how ingredients of foods for export were sourced and what, if any, tests they have undergone.
Copyright © PA Business 2008
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