China's safety food legislation classification: geographical characteristics
The data pertaining to food legislation were grouped by the 4 economic regions used by national classification, namely, Northeast China, Central China, the Eastern Region, and the Western Region (Fig. 1). In each economic region, provinces selected for this study are presented in Table 1.
Table 1
Provinces within each of the four economic regions of China
Region | Province | Population (millions) |
Central China | Anhui, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Shanxi | 372.46 |
Eastern Region | Beijing, Fujian, Guangdong, Hainan, Hebei, Jiangsu, Shandong, Tianjin, Zhejiang | 541.65 |
Northeast China | Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning | 107.94 |
Western Region | Chongqing, Gansu, Guangxi, Guizhou, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Tibet, Xinjiang, Yunnan | 381.80 |
Population distribution by region in China as of 2019
https://www.statista.com/statistics/279013/population-in-china-by-region/
The data consisted of an enumeration of the types of laws in identified provinces in these economic regions. The laws were categorized as food safety, green food, and health food laws. Safe food refers to food that is non-toxic and harmless, meets nutritional requirements, and does not cause any acute, subacute, or chronic harm to human health (Food Safety Law of the People's Republic of China, 2018). Green food refers to safe, high-quality edible agricultural products and related products that are produced in a pesticide-free and fertile ecological environment. This enables the implementation of full quality control and results in the right to use the Green Food Mark (Green Food Mark Management Measures, 2012). Health food, that is suitable for certain people to eat, has the function of regulating the body, and is not food for the purpose of curing diseases (State Food and Drug Administration, 1996).
The data was in the form of contingency tables and Pearson’s Chi-square test of independence was applied to the datasets to explain the distribution of the different types of laws across the economic regions and provide evidence of the identified distribution patterns. Balloon plots showing the contribution of the cross-cell counts relative to the total counts are given (Table 1). Since the chi-square statistic was used, it is also important to show correlograms highlighting the contribution of the residuals to the chi-square statistic as given in the following calculation:
$$Contribution \% of each cell=\left(\frac{{(observed-expected)}^{2}}{{expected}^{2}}\right)*100=\left(\frac{{residual}^{2}}{{expected}^{2}}\right)*100$$
Diachronic analysis
In carrying out a diachronic analysis the authors selected the journal articles in the Wanfang database Chinese Social Science Citation Index (CSSCI) and searched by "Food Safety Law". The time frame was limited from 2003 to 2020, and a total of 100 papers have been reviewed to discover the current research status and trends in this area of research in China.
Synchronic analysis
According to the nature of the selected 100 articles, this research divided these articles into four categories: law, management, economics, and others, for analysis.
Safe food legislation and regional characteristics
At present (as of December 2022), there are a total of 651 laws related to food safety formulated in China, which are based on the overarching Food Safety Law. These laws were formulated by the central government and promulgated by the local governments. So, these laws can be divided into central laws and local laws. Due to the large number of local laws, they provide a good source of data for research. There are currently 485 active local laws (Fig. 2).
Green food legislation and regional characteristics
Appendix 1 lists the total 270 green food laws formulated in China based on the "Interim Measures for the Management of "Green Food" Products".
Health food legislation and regional characteristics
Health food refers to food that has specific health functions, which have the function of regulating the body and is not for the purpose of curing diseases. (State Food and Drug Administration, 1996)
At present, there are a total of 456 health food laws formulated in China (Table 1) based on the "Health Food Management Measures". Among them, the number of the local laws is 371 (Table 1).
In the Central Region, X-squared is 11.23, meaning the provinces and the laws are closely associated. This situation also appeared in the Northeast Region, with the X-squared is 13.83. Conversely, in the regions of Eastern and Western China, the observed counts are significantly greater than the expected counts contributing 42.59% and 37.76% to the overall chi-square statistic Fig. 7. This demonstrates that the development of food safety laws in central and northeastern China is in line with expectations. While the development of food safety laws in eastern and western China has not met expectations.
Jiangsu, Guangdong, and Shandong provinces, all in the eastern economic region, rank in the top three in terms of numbers of legislation (Fig. 6, 8). These three provinces belong to the developed areas along the eastern coast. Their economies and societies are in a state of rapid development. They are gathering places for migrant workers and the catering industry is booming (Jiang, 2010). When the catering industry is prosperous, it is often the time that the demand and need for food safety increases, and the number of corresponding legislations increases as a result. Qinghai and Ningxia are mainly underdeveloped areas in the west, with relatively underdeveloped economies and societies. They have a large minority population (Liu et al, 2008). Minorities generally have cultural eating habits, social customs, and religious beliefs, which regulate their behavior to a certain extent (Wan, 2000). In these underdeveloped regions, stricter food legislation may not always achieve the ideal outcome because in these areas social customs or religious beliefs have more influence than national or regional laws.
Green food laws
Guangdong and Heilongjiang Provinces have the largest number of green food laws (Table 1). Guangdong Province is located on the southeast coast of China and belongs to the East Asian monsoon region. It is one of the regions with the most abundant light, heat, and water resources in China. The province has an average of 1745.8 sunshine hours and the annual average temperature is 22.3℃. Guangdong has abundant precipitation, with an average of 1777 mm across the province. This provides very good conditions to produce green food. The development of green food in Guangdong is well advanced and follows a model that adapts measures to local conditions, relies on resource advantages, implements the industrialized business model of "company + base + farmer + standard", and promotes the overall large-scale production of green food (Wang and Cui, 2009). As early as 2009, the output value of Guangdong's green food industry was striving for an increase of 30% (Wang and Cui, 2009).Guangdong and Heilongjiang Provinces have the largest number of green food laws (Table 1). Guangdong Province is located on the southeast coast of China and belongs to the East Asian monsoon region. It is one of the regions with the most abundant light, heat, and water resources in China. The province has an average of 1745.8 sunshine hours and the annual average temperature is 22.3℃. Guangdong has abundant precipitation, with an average of 1777 mm across the province. This provides very good conditions to produce green food. The development of green food in Guangdong is well advanced and follows a model that adapts measures to local conditions, relies on resource advantages, implements the industrialized business model of "company + base + farmer + standard", and promotes the overall large-scale production of green food (Wang and Cui, 2009). As early as 2009, the output value of Guangdong's green food industry was striving for an increase of 30% (Wang and Cui, 2009).Guangdong and Heilongjiang Provinces have the largest number of green food laws (Table 1). Guangdong Province is located on the southeast coast of China and belongs to the East Asian monsoon region. It is one of the regions with the most abundant light, heat, and water resources in China. The province has an average of 1745.8 sunshine hours and the annual average temperature is 22.3℃. Guangdong has abundant precipitation, with an average of 1777 mm across the province. This provides very good conditions to produce green food. The development of green food in Guangdong is well advanced and follows a model that adapts measures to local conditions, relies on resource advantages, implements the industrialized business model of "company + base + farmer + standard", and promotes the overall large-scale production of green food (Wang and Cui, 2009). As early as 2009, the output value of Guangdong's green food industry was striving for an increase of 30% (Wang and Cui, 2009).Guangdong and Heilongjiang Provinces have the largest number of green food laws (Table 1). Guangdong Province is located on the southeast coast of China and belongs to the East Asian monsoon region. It is one of the regions with the most abundant light, heat, and water resources in China. The province has an average of 1745.8 sunshine hours and the annual average temperature is 22.3℃. Guangdong has abundant precipitation, with an average of 1777 mm across the province. This provides very good conditions to produce green food. The development of green food in Guangdong is well advanced and follows a model that adapts measures to local conditions, relies on resource advantages, implements the industrialized business model of "company + base + farmer + standard", and promotes the overall large-scale production of green food (Wang and Cui, 2009). As early as 2009, the output value of Guangdong's green food industry was striving for an increase of 30% (Wang and Cui, 2009).
Heilongjiang is in northeastern China. It has a cold temperate zone and a temperate continental monsoon climate. The average temperature in summer is 18℃. The summer is affected by the southeast monsoon. The average annual sunshine hours are between 2300 and 2900. However, the annual precipitation is not abundant, it ranges from 400mm to 650 mm. In addition, the land is fertile and this provides a good natural basis for the growth of green food. This means that the production of green food is inseparable from the natural environment.
Health food laws
This research identified that the top four provinces in terms of health food legislation are: Yunnan, and Guangxi in the Western Region, Guangdong in the Eastern Region, and Jilin, in Northeast China. (Table 1). Yunnan Province is a key area for the development of healthy food and raw materials. These include matsutake (Tricholoma matsutake), notoginseng (Panax notoginseng), and walnut (Juglans sp.). Yunnan Province has the largest number of plant species in the country and is known as the Kingdom of Plants (Yunnan Government, 2020). Tropical, subtropical, temperate, cold temperate, and other plant types are distributed across the region, and there are many ancient, derived, and exotic plant species and groups.
Food regulation and location
Chinese food laws are mainly concentrated in the eastern part of China, which means that food laws are more fully developed by the local government here, close to the ocean constituting 47.6% of the food laws. The volume of food legislation in Central China and the Western Region is significantly smaller at 21.6% and 24.9% while in the Northeast Region, it is a mere 5.8%. Due to the relatively developed economy in the eastern coastal areas of China, along with population density, the impact of the floating population in these provinces as well as technology, the education levels, and public transportation all demonstrate that China's safety food legislation is related to population size and population mobility. Areas with large populations and high mobility will increase the demand for food regulation. The legislation of green food and healthy food is greatly influenced by natural environmental factors and this is important because only these regions could provide an ideal environment for the growth of the related products
Growth of food safety legislation
Since 2009, China has increased its food safety legislation year by year, a process that reached its peak in 2012 (Fig. 2). 2012 was the second year of China's 12th "Five-Year Plan" which mainly focuses on the daily life of people (Chinese People's Congress, 2011). At the same time, on February 26, 2012, the General Office of the State Council issued the "2012 Food Safety Key Work Arrangement" (General Office of the State Council,2012). The 12th regulation clearly states:
‘That we will improve the food safety legal system. We will accelerate the introduction of local regulations on the management of small workshops and vendors. We will accelerate the formulation of regulations on the supervision and administration of healthy food, and revise, and improve the Regulations on the Management of Pesticides, the Measures for the Health Management of Prohibited Foods, and the Measures for the Management of Pesticide Production' (General Office of the State Council, 2012)
This data demonstrates that in 2012, the government was paying more attention to the daily life of China's population than in previous times. Food safety is a basic requirement of people's lives (Zhao, 2012). From Fig. 9, we see that a strong focus on food legislation in China reached its peak in 2012. The data emphasizes that China's national legislative orientation plays a crucial role in China's food safety legislation. In the first few years after the introduction of general national policy, there was a surge in legislation, including food safety laws (Yan, 2017).
On May 15, 1990, China officially announced the start of the green food legislation (Yu, 2016). On May 24, 1991, the Ministry of Agriculture issued the first regulation on "green food", namely "Provisional Measures for the Management of Green Food Products" (Ministry of Agriculture, 1991). This is the milestone of "green food" in China. Figure 3 shows that the beginning of China's "green food" was from 1995 to 2001. In 1996, the China Green Food Development Center proactively launched a strategy for the growth of green resources, opening a new chapter in China's green food industry’s history. (Cong, Mu, 2018) The steady period is from 1990 to 2001 which provided a good foundation for the following high-speed growing. In 2007, the Green Health Assets logo was officially registered in the National Trademark Office, and since then it has embarked on the road of branding evolution. (Cong, Mu, 2018) The accelerated stage was from 2001 to 2004, followed by the high-speed stage from 2004 to 2013. And finally, the stable stage was from 2013 to the present. It is evident that national policies have the most direct impact on legislation as opposed to local laws. National legislation is an effective guide for local legislation. When national laws are promulgated, local laws tend to develop rapidly.
The development of the health food industry is divided into four stages. Firstly, a high-speed growth period from the late 1980s to the mid-1990s. Secondly, the formation period of the industrial chain, between 1995–2002. Thirdly, the industrial structural adjustment period occurred between 2003 to 2008. This period occurred in response to the problems of the health food market, these problems requiring the health food industry structure to be adjusted significantly. Finally, the orderly development period. Since 2009, the health food industry has entered a new period of orderly development (Zhao and Liu, 2010).
At the same time, there have been other points of view about the division of the stage proposed (Zhang, 2020): 1) The growth stage: 1987–1995; 2) The maturity stage: 1996–2003, this denotes the mature stage of the entire health food market; 3) The industry adjustment stage between 2003–2008. This was the industry adjustment stage of the health food market; and 4) Finally, the rapid expansion stage from 2009-present.
Development of the health food industry
This research analysis has identified that the development process for healthy food could be divided as follows:
1) As Fig. 9 indicates the first stage of the development of China’s health food industry commenced in 1995. The period 1995–2001 was the initial stage of the health food industry. However, in the past 30 years, the basic living standards of the Chinese people have gradually improved, and their material lives have also been gradually enriched (Su, 2018). These are the foundations upon which the Chinese people have expanded their interest in different food types and higher food quality. With the increase in such demands, the Ministry of Health introduced "Health Food Management Measures" on March 15, 1996 (Ministry of Health of the People's Republic of China, 1996). These measures mainly included health food approval, health food production, and operation, health food labeling requirements, health food instructions, advertising, and supervision and management (Ministry of Health of the People's Republic of China,1996). These measures can be seen as the beginning of the development of health food legislation in China.
2) The Period 2001–2015 saw the coexistence of rapid development and the adjustment of the relevant industries (Sun, 2016). The huge benefits from the health food growth led to the rapid development of this industry. When an industry has predictable benefits, companies and individuals invest in it resulting in many competitors in a very short time. Meanwhile, as the number of people in the industry increases, the number of illegal activities also increases. (Cheng, 2016) The difficulties faced by the government in managing the development tend to increase also. Therefore, it was necessary for more legislation and effective industry management.
3) 2015-present. The third stage is from 2015 to the present. This is a period of steady development. The promulgation and implementation of a large number of industry legislations have enabled industry behavior to reach its current high standards.
Chinese culture has a long history and comprises many diverse cultural groups that are often influenced by traditional practices. Throughout this history, healthy food has always been emphasized as an important part of society. This has especially been the case in the development process of the past 30 years, particularly as a result of China’s decision to join the market economy. As a result, in recent times the steps for the Chinese people to develop and produce healthy food have been simplified and become cheaper. The Chinese people's desire for healthy food is increasing as is the supply (Zhao and Liu, 2010). But in an uneven fashion geographically.
Diachronic analysis
From 2003–2008 research on China's food safety laws averaged 3.7 publications/year (Fig. 10) reflecting the fact that research in this field received minimal attention from relevant scholars. Since China revised the "Food Safety Law (Revised Draft)" in 2009 and promulgated the "Food Safety Law" that year (Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, 2009), the research on the food safety legislation has received a much greater level of attention.
In 2009 alone, the number of papers grew rapidly. However, the publication was not consistent subsequently, with high volumes in 2010, 2012, and 2016. This period between 2010 to 2016 is related to China's public consultation on the "Food Safety Law Amendment Draft (Draft for Review)" in October 2013. However, there has been a downward trend since 2009.
The research on food safety laws can be divided into three stages. The first stage can be defined as the embryonic period (2003–2009). During this period, most scholars tended to study foreign food safety legislation, expressing China's strong desire to formulate a "Food Safety Law". As domestic food safety legislation, testing, supervision, and legal penalties were not well developed. Most Chinese scholars use comparative methods to compare China's domestic food safety monitoring system with Western developed countries and then put forward relevant suggestions for the construction of food safety laws for China. They tended to emphasize the following: ‘the need to improve China's food safety laws as soon as possible in order that they might be developed to a level commensurate with the EU standards’ (Chen, 2003). Over time, the demand for the Food Safety laws has become more and more urgent. Due to the narrow scope of adjustment of the Food Hygiene Law, it became necessary to replace the Food Hygiene Law with the Food Safety Law to ensure the food safety of China (Li, 2009). Scholars and decision-makers saw the need to move forward with new opinions on the legislative work of the Food Safety Law (Zhou, 2005).
The second stage was the rapid growth period (2009–2016) although it should be noted that this growth was inconsistent. During this period, food safety legislation had been promulgated, and scholars tended to study the new law itself. The newly promulgated Food Safety Law in China had built a comprehensive barrier to ensure food safety standards were maintained. The focus changed from regulation of the law to the needs of human beings (Xing, 2009). Legal researchers have placed since 2009 greater emphasis on the protection of human rights, which has enabled legal researchers to determine the need for regulatory agencies to respect and support consumers while also paying attention to this point when enforcing food safety laws. (Wang, 2009). Meanwhile, some scholars pointed out the shortcomings of the Food Safety Law. The Food Safety Law passed in February 2009 did not change the mode of segmentation supervision, and the authority of the Food Safety Committee was not clear, which affected the supervision of the committee (Xiao, 2009).
The third stage is characterized as the period of decline (2017–2020). As the law had been enacted for 7 years, Chinese scholars discovered that there were many shortcomings in this law. From the perspective of food safety responsibility, the current laws associated with food safety and regulations impose small penalties on food safety breaches, The researcher analysis identified the need for increased intensity of penalties (Zheng, 2013). From the perspective of strengthening prevention, China needs to establish a national integrity system to punish those food companies that break the law. From the perspective of strengthening effective enforcement, this integrity system should focus on improving the overall responsibility system of local governments and combat local protectionism (Zheng, 2013). China’s food safety management system is currently decentralized, relying heavily on administrative coordination as a means to enforce the laws. It also relies on legislation to define the concept of food, resulting in confusion in the objects of law enforcement and other reasons (Liao, 2013). The desire of the people to amend the "Food Safety Law" is gradually increasing (Xu, 2013). Xu (2013) further stated that due to the rapid development of China's food industry, the continuous increase in food safety requirements, and the continuous increase in food safety supervision, some parts of the current "Food Safety Law" have not fully adapted to the needs of economic and social development and should be revised and improved in time.
Synchronic analysis
The synchronic analysis showed that the research articles on food legislation mainly focus on the legal and management categories, and these two parts alone account for 89% of the work published (Fig. 11). It also indicates a need for increased research in other areas.
5.3 Synchronic analysis of the development process of China's food law
From both the diachronic and synchronic analyses, it can be concluded that the research on China's food safety law is in a serious state of imbalance. National legislation has a direct impact on the research direction of researchers. Researchers are more inclined to study popular sectors, namely legal and management, and relatively unpopular sectors covering economics, biosecurity, and hygiene have mostly lost the researchers’ attention. Researchers need to adjust the direction of their research to ensure that research on food law is more balanced and covers more about the areas of agriculture and economics. Because these areas could provide fundamental material for the study of China’s food safety law.