Nansha’s customs safeguards imported food safety

Nansha’s customs quarantined a total of 4,490 batches of imported food in the first half of this year, a year-on-year increase of 61.3 percent, according to their internal data.

Food safety assurance has lots of room to go deeper. “Food in freezers should be stored by categories and that on shelves is supposed to be kept at least 10 cm off the walls and ground as well," said Customs officer Huang Yuewu.

Huang reminds the public to pay close attention to the sell-by dates of food. Wines with over 10 percent alcohol per volume could be exempt from their own expiration date, but will be unfit to drink when they are smoke-like, silt-like, or have flocculent precipitation.

The customs has recently held a series of activities to publicize food safety policies in order to raise the sense of responsibility of foreign exporters, manufacturing enterprises and importers.

“Nansha custom controls import and export enterprises tightly by strict verification of their qualifications, and so can cut down intervention in follow-up processes of custom clearance and improve efficiency,” said Sun Xihua, manager of Mead Johnson Nutrition Ltd. Corp.

Food testing is another important part in the process of supervision. “Take infant milk powder as an example,” said Zheng Zhonghua from a local food physical-chemical test laboratory. “Domestic and overseas limit standards are distinctive from each other, so it’s necessary to detect various aspects of imported milk powder such as nutrient elements, vitamins and pollutant elements.”

This May, the inspection center found a kind of virus named quarantine Bean Pod Mottle Virus carried by a batch of No.2 US soybeans. The shipment weighed 156.9 tons and was valued at $31.4 00. It was disposed of harmlessly.