Assessing the establishment of agro-food control systems based on a relevant officials' survey in China

With agro-food safety events happening frequently, China is taking measures to build agro-food control systems that include establishing an organization and agencies, enacting laws, allocating funds and so on. To assess the establishment of agro-food control systems, an electronic survey was sent to local agro-food control officials in 22 provinces of China. With descriptive analysis and factor analysis of 214 respondents, we determined an objective view of the establishment of municipal agro-food control systems in China. The study shows that there are great challenges to establishing these systems. Although local governments paid high attention to agro-food control by measures such as signing responsibility contracts and bringing the indicators of performance of agro-food control into the local government performance evaluation system, local laws and regulations relevant to agro-food safety were rarely enacted, Agro-food Safety Public Services were scarcely established in townships, and multi-sectoral management caused inefficiency. Moreover, 89.08% of the respondents indicated that the funds provided by local governments were not enough for agro-food control, which was also considered the biggest problem. It is apparent that there are great regional differences in the establishment of agro-food control systems.

► Our data came from half of municipalities of China, provided by local officials. ► Shortages of local food legislations and funds were the biggest challenges. ► Multi-sectoral management led to inefficiency of agro-food control systems. ► Regional differences were obvious, especially between Eastern and western regions.