CCAA Executive Vice President and Secretary-General Huang Jixian attended the 14th "Belt and Road" Ecological Agriculture and Food Safety Forum and delivered a keynote speech

Guided by the Office of the Food Safety Commission of the State Council, and jointly organized by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, the Silk Road Planning Research Center, and the Codex Alimentarius Commission, the 14th "Belt and Road" Ecological Agriculture and Food Safety Forum was successfully held in Beijing on June 16, 2021, as a key event of the "2021 National Food Safety Publicity Week." The theme was "Food Safety Supports High-Quality Development and Rural Revitalization."

Huang Jixian, Executive Vice President and Secretary-General of the China Certification and Accreditation Association, delivered the keynote speech

The full text of the speech is as follows:

Dear leaders, guests, friends from the business and agricultural sectors, good afternoon. I am very honored to have this opportunity to discuss with you the topic of how conformity assessment promotes the high-quality development of the food industry and the implementation of the rural revitalization strategy.

My presentation is divided into three parts: first, explaining the concept and role of conformity assessment; second, how conformity assessment supports the high-quality development of the food industry; third, about supporting rural revitalization.

When talking about conformity assessment, first let me explain what conformity assessment means. It is a technical term that those unfamiliar with the industry may not understand, see clearly, explain well, or remember. Simply put, according to ISO standards, it is the confirmation that specified requirements related to an object are fulfilled. If that is still unclear, to put it more plainly, it refers to the contract that certification, products, processes, systems, personnel, and organizations comply with relevant standards. You might understand this a bit better, but still not fully clear. More simply, since we are discussing the food industry today, food safety is a national and global concern. There are various national, industry, and enterprise standards related to food safety. We must conduct various tests to certify whether these meet the relevant standards. Testing and inspection are conformity assessment. Currently, conformity assessment is increasingly applied and its role is becoming more important.

This morning, Director Liu Weijun spoke about the concept of quality certification, much of which is also conformity assessment. I will skip some of the content prepared in my slides.

Conformity assessment is a fundamental institutional arrangement to strengthen quality management and improve market efficiency under market economy conditions. It is a cornerstone and tool of national government policy. Director Weijun mentioned the concept of the three certificates this morning, which is an accurate concept. The term conformity assessment is less commonly heard in our country compared to quality certification, but internationally it is a very common term. In 2006, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) proposed the three pillars of national quality infrastructure: standards, metrology, and conformity assessment. Since then, the term conformity assessment has become widely recognized internationally. However, due to historical reasons in our country, more emphasis was placed on certification and accreditation in conformity assessment. Our national quality infrastructure was divided into four pillars: standards, metrology, certification and accreditation, and inspection and testing. The core of conformity assessment is certification and accreditation and inspection and testing. This is a lengthy topic, so I will not elaborate further today. Our country established the Certification and Accreditation Administration Committee, whose functions cover the relevant functions of conformity assessment management internationally.

The origin of the modern conformity assessment system dates back to the 19th century after the development of Western industry and the demand for commodity trade, starting with the certification of British railway products. Certification began to be implemented and is one aspect of conformity assessment.

The development of conformity assessment in our country mainly reflects the establishment of a consistent internal and external conformity assessment system after China joined the WTO, with a relatively complete legal system based on the Certification and Accreditation Regulations. Currently, multiple laws, regulations, and rules include certification and accreditation provisions. We say certification and accreditation are the main content of conformity assessment.

Secondly, a system has been established, including related certification and accreditation, inspection and testing institutions, import and export food services, and other related functions, forming the highest decision-making body for conformity assessment with the National Certification and Accreditation Administration as the competent authority and 28 ministries and commissions of the State Council as members of the joint conference.

Another aspect is the international mutual recognition system for conformity assessment. The certification and accreditation system is one of the earliest introduced, most widely used, and most mature systems in our country from the international community. To date, we participate in all regional international organizations related to certification and accreditation worldwide and hold important positions in many organizations, playing a significant role.

Speaking of the Certification and Accreditation Association, it was established in 2006 alongside the construction of the national certification and accreditation management system. At that time, a five-in-one certification system was to be established, but an industry closed loop was missing, so the Certification and Accreditation Association was born. Under government leadership, the association serves as a bridge connecting industries, enterprises, and the government. Here I show you that it is a 5A-level social organization evaluated by the Ministry of Civil Affairs. Among the 2,276 associations under the Ministry of Civil Affairs' jurisdiction with "national" in their names, less than 4% (fewer than 80) are rated 5A-level. Since 2010, we have been a 5A-level association. Our services cover all aspects of conformity assessment and differ from administrative agencies' responsibilities. Administrative agencies have overlapping duties, but our services are boundless and endless. We undertake international standards such as ISO/CASCO, serve as the secretariat for national standards, and handle other business areas. Regarding the last two parts of my talk, our association has also done some specific work.

The second part introduces how conformity assessment supports the high-quality development of the food industry. The important status and role of quality and safety in the food industry are indisputable and well understood, so I will not elaborate. From our country's perspective, the government has taken many effective measures to ensure food safety, implementing a farm-to-table management model based on improving national laws and regulations. In this management process, certification, accreditation, and inspection and testing play indispensable roles. As early as the 1990s, export food enterprises, under the guidance of the National Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau, pioneered HACCP certification and mastered HACCP theory. After the establishment of the Certification and Accreditation Administration Committee in 2001, we made significant progress in standardized and regulated scientific management indicators. Our country's certification work for food and agricultural products established new regulatory concepts, gradually implementing more than ten nationally unified certification systems, including organic product certification, hazard analysis and critical control points system certification, food safety management system certification, and good agricultural practice certification. It can be said that a unified, open, competitive, orderly, and continuously developing food safety certification system has basically been established.

The ten certification systems include five product certifications, five management system certifications, and one service certification. Additionally, it should be noted that some industry organizations and certification bodies have independently developed a batch of food and agricultural product certification systems and conducted related certification work. Food safety inspection and testing cover more than 30 major food categories, with 12 major testing categories shown above, which I will not detail one by one.

Inspection and testing cover the entire chain and process of the food industry, from farmland environment to agricultural production, food processing, market circulation, and kitchen dining table, achieving full coverage.

So far, considerable achievements have been made in the safety management certification of food and agricultural products. These data illustrate this. It should be pointed out that the duration of this work is not long enough. Compared with the needs of our country's food safety situation development and the current reality of food safety enterprises' products, there is still great room for development. It requires everyone's joint efforts to continue promoting and doing a large amount of foundational work.

The Certification and Accreditation Association has also done some work in food safety according to its responsibilities and functions. Since 2018, it has taken the lead in undertaking the functional evaluation work of inspection method-related national food safety standards entrusted by the Food Safety Standards and Monitoring Evaluation Department of the National Health Commission and the National Food Safety Risk Assessment Center. In 2018 and 2019, many related matters were also established. In 2020, we carried out national food safety standards related to inspection and testing methods and proposed relevant standardized operations. It is especially worth noting that this year we signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the China Customs Science and Technology Research Center to focus on basic, key, and overall technical research and in-depth cooperation in the fields of border security, life safety, food safety, consumer goods safety, certification, accreditation, inspection, and testing. The former Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau was under Customs and dealt with world-class institutions. The concept and experience of food safety are very rich and advanced. The joint efforts of the two parties are expected to deepen cooperation in this area and make our due efforts for the safety of the national food industry and the high-quality development of the food industry. In addition, we have also released a batch of national standards, industry standards, and group standards related to food.

The third topic is to introduce how conformity assessment supports rural revitalization. The newly passed "Rural Revitalization Promotion Law of the People's Republic of China" clearly proposes encouraging enterprises to obtain internationally recognized agricultural product certifications to enhance the competitiveness of rural industries. This certification is an important part of conformity assessment. Currently, the conformity assessment work supporting rural revitalization mainly reflects at the national level in the "Three Products and One Standard" initiative, which is a product promoted and led by government departments. A national organic agriculture demonstration zone has been established. The significance of this demonstration zone work is very important. It was originally led by the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, approved by the Evaluation and Commendation Office, and established as a national organic agriculture demonstration zone. Currently, there are more than 150 such zones, with more than 50 located in national poverty counties/districts. Through the organic agriculture demonstration zones, these national poverty counties/districts have successfully been lifted out of poverty.

The new trend now is the construction of regional brands. Each region, based on local conditions and economic characteristics, has launched conformity assessment work for certification, accreditation, inspection, and testing, forming some unique regional brand landmark and group standard certifications. This maximizes the value of specialty agricultural products, thereby driving the high-quality development of regional agricultural economies and is a major support for rural revitalization. You can see brands like Jiangsu Boutique, Shanghai Quality, Wuhan Famous Products, etc., which are local efforts to build and promote influential brands.

Currently, projects such as homestay service certification, forest health care service certification, and photovoltaic poverty alleviation have taken shape and are developing vigorously. In the process of promoting the high-quality development of the food industry and rural revitalization, conformity assessment plays an irreplaceable and indispensable role in promoting product quality and food safety improvement.

Our association has already started some work in the process of rural revitalization. After the establishment of the Rural Revitalization Bureau, we immediately contacted the bureau. The bureau is very pleased and hopeful about our work in certification, accreditation, conformity assessment, and inspection and testing serving rural revitalization. Recently, we have had several rounds of consultations. The Rural Revitalization Bureau specially compiled some of our work into the agency publication "China Rural Revitalization" magazine. The magazine also discussed with us how to use conformity assessment as a tool to promote rural revitalization. At the same time, they assigned us a task to contact the local government in Ulanqab. We went there with relevant member units and had very good discussions. The local government and party committee are full of hope for this work. The next step is to substantively implement the agreed work content.

Overall, conformity assessment supporting rural revitalization and the development of the food industry has great potential. We hope that the enterprises and social organizations present will join us in working hand in hand to push this matter to a new height. Thank you.

Photo of the forum site