The national grain watchdog will tighten market supervision to
ban the sale of stale grain for human consumption.
The State Grain Administration issued two notices recently on
the supervision of sales of old grain, normally used in the
production of industrial alcohol.
The amount of stale grain sold to authorized companies will be
restricted each time to six months' consumption, and the total
amount must not exceed a company's annual requirements.
The move is to prevent companies selling stale grain to
consumers as food.
It was reported recently that grain more than three years old
was sold as food in markets of some cities such as Tianjin.
In fact, the grain had gone bad and was not fit for human
consumption, sources said.
Grain prices have seen a significant increase. According to the
National Bureau of Statistics the price of grain products rose 4.7
percent last month.
In a move to stabilize prices and guarantee market supply, 4.34
million tons of grain have been auctioned since last month, the
Xinhua News Agency reported.
China is auctioning its wheat reserves for the sixth time since
last month in Zhengzhou, the capital of central China's Henan
Province, said sources with the China Grain Reserves
Corporation.
The corporation said it purchased 40.7 million tons from June to
September to fill state reserves and to reinforce the country's
ability to regulate wheat prices.
A spokesman said about 500 to 600 grain processing firms took
part in the auction and supply and demand has generally remained
steady.
The government will continue to intervene in the market
periodically by selling grain reserves. The demand is expected to
increase with the approach of the Chinese Lunar New Year.
Food safety has become a problem this year.
Poisonous substances were found in honey in central China's
Hubei Province, lard in east China's Zhejiang Province, pork and
fish in Shanghai, and salted ducks' eggs in north China's Hebei
Province.
Experts said that China lacked an effective supervision network
covering production, sales, storage and transportation of food.
(China Daily December 25, 2006)