EOPLE no longer know what can be safely put on the dinner table," said Professor Zhang Zhiying, an expert with the Shanghai Food Research Institute.

Every crackdown on the catering industry or food markets puts new doubts into the minds of alert consumers with the result that they will shun the products mentioned.

"If consumers develop a bad impression about a particular food, it will be a long time before they change their attitude," Zhang said.

Concerns over food safety have resulted in some brand names going bankrupt. Jinhua Ham and Nanjing Guanshengyuan were two brand names with a long history and a high reputation which became associated with food poisoning.

Early warning

"The fear of food being in short supply has been overtaken by fear about food quality," said Gu Zhenhua, an official from the Shanghai Institute of Public Health Supervision.

According to Professor Zhang: "We must guide consumers but not scare them away. It is too late for us to launch a crackdown when we find some food has caused loss to the consumers. It would be better to establish a warning and prevention system."

This system would test food that has caused safety problems in the past and the findings would then be analyzed. Prevention measures would be taken if the result of any analysis turned out to be negative.

For example, leafy vegetables would be tested in summer because that is when they have most pesticide residue on their leaves. More pesticide is used to kill insects then, since they are growing and reproducing fastest during the hot season.

If the level of pesticide-residue is found after testing to exceed the safety alert level, the system would provide information about the vegetable such as the place of production. Consumers could avoid buying the same kind of vegetable from that place.

Shanghai has established a food safety warning system but Zhang said there was still a long way to go to perfect the system.

Zhang said the biggest problem remained supervision. Today, almost all government departments concerned with health and food are involved in supervision work.

But the system needs to be changed to ensure better collaboration between different departments.

Nutrition law needed

Experts also suggested that the same importance should be attached to the problem of the nutritional value of food.

Although China has over 100 laws and regulations on food safety and standards, policies on the inspection of food nutrition and the application of penalties were largely ignored in the regulations.

"The infrastructure standards in most developed countries also include the health quality of their citizens," said Dr. Zeng Hongying from the National Development and Renovation Association. Nutrition laws in these countries have been enacted to prevent illegal food operations. Based on the WHO's survey of nutrition policy in Europe, 29 countries in the area implemented food nutrition laws in 1999, and 26 countries established food inspection branches at a governmental level.

In comparison with European countries, China's food inspection steps still lag behind. Experts on food nutrition have expressed urgent concern about the establishment of a body to deal with Chinese food nutrition laws.