New regulation to promote green food quality

A newly-amended Chinese regulation on green food labels is expected to promote standard production and quality of farm produce in the country, a senior Chinese official said Friday.

The regulation, which will come into effect on Oct. 1, will facilitate healthy development of the green food sector, Zhang Yuxiang, an official with the Ministry of Agriculture, said at a meeting held to promote the amended rule.

China has more than 6,000 green food enterprises, offering more than 17,000 kinds of products. Their domestic sales totaled 31.35 billion yuan (4.94 billion U.S. dollars) last year, with exports hitting 2.4 billion U.S. dollars, according to Zhang.

The regulation, which was revised from its 1993 version, has raised the threshold for green food makers, making such requirements on their production environment, and their quality management and capacity of bearing social responsibilities.