Characterizing the Exposome of Food Contamination and China Total Diet Study: Project for Improving Food Safety Risk Assessment in China

Abstract

Over the past 30 years, China, as a developing country with a huge population and large geographical heterogeneity, has made a big leap from a shortage of food to basically the elimination of hunger. However, there has been a challenge moving from traditional agriculture and farming practices with numerous small food businesses and short supply chains to larger scale production and longer supply chains. Ensuring an adequate supply of safe, nutritious, high-quality food requires regulatory oversight based on scientific evidence. With the global distribution of human food and ingredients, this is a shared challenge internationally. The only way to steadily improve the food safety situation globally and in China is to follow the risk analysis framework with the joint efforts of all stakeholders (1). Since 2009, the Chinese risk assessment system has been developed in accordance with the Food Safety Law of the People’s Republic of China.