Demands for imported food have increased constantly with increasing of living standard of Chinese residents. China has imported food with the value of USD 22.23 billion in the first half of 2015, which has increased by 4.2 times for ten years with annual average growth rate of 17.6%. Import volume for staple commodities such as edible vegetable oil, milk powder, meat and aquatic products has respectively reached 3,395,000 tons, 614,000 tons, 1,325,000 tons and 2,006,000 tons in the first half of 2015. Imported food safety has become the critical issue for guaranteeing safety of Chinese consumers.

China has imported 552,000 batches equivalent to 20,352,000 tons and USD22.23 billion from 179 countries or regions in the first half year of 2015, which has obtained a year-on-year growth of 11.9%, 21.2% and -10.8% respectively. The first ten trade volume of imported food is respectively: European union, ASEAN, America, New Zealand, Brazil, Australia, Russia, Canada, Ukraine and South Korea; main categories of imported food are grease and oil paints, dairy product, aquatic product, meat, cereal grain product, alcohol, sugar and beverage.

State Quality Inspection Administration has further improved safety supervision system for imported food, further strengthened inspection and quarantine supervision for imported food, implemented responsibilities of producers and operators of imported food, actively boosted common governance of food safety in the globe and effectively guaranteed safety of imported food in the first half year of 2015, therefore, no major imported food problem has happened in the first half year of 2015. It has returned or destroyed 1225 batches of disqualified imported food (equivalent to 1,452,000 tons and USD14,520,000) from 57 countries or regions in the first half year of 2015, which has obtained a year-on-year decrease of 12.3%, 31.8% and 67.6% respectively. In which: beverage, pastry, grain and product are main disqualified food categories; main reasons for disqualified imported food include: disqualified food additive, polluted by microorganism and poor quality.

State Quality Inspection Administration has issued “Imported Food Quality and Safety Situations of China in 2014 (white paper)” on world health day (April 7), which has attracted wide attentions from all walks in the society. Issuing of “Imported Food quality and safety situations of China in 2014 (white paper)” will better guide the whole society to know overall situation of imported food, build information sharing platform among the government, enterprise and consumers and provide reference for all levels of inspection and supervision departments to implement imported food supervision work. Meanwhile, it has provided basic data support for quality safety management and development strategy of China’s food industry.