Food safety risk assessment in China: Past, present and future

As an integral component of the risk analysis framework, food safety risk assessment has been developed in China after the promulgation of the Food Safety Law of the People's Republic of China in 2009 with the creation of the China National Center for Food Safety Risk Assessment (CFSA). This paper introduces the ongoing capacity building of risk analysis in China, in line with the development of the CFSA, with emphasis on progress in national food safety risk assessment work. Selected case examples are used to illustrate the achievements in food safety risk assessment in China. However in order to further strengthen its capacities for food safety risk assessment, China needs to continue to work on the development of risk assessment methodologies and provide more and better data for risk assessment and risk management. All countries need to work together as the problems in the global supply chain can only be resolved by all the stakeholders collaborating to ensure risk management decisions are based on the best science available.