Edited by: Zhen Wang, Huazhong Agricultural University, China
Reviewed by: Yuanchao Hu, Dongguan University of Technology, China; Feng Zhou, Peking University, China
This article was submitted to Nutrition and Sustainable Diets, a section of the journal Frontiers in Nutrition
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Based on systematic literature study and policy document analysis, this paper investigates the environmental pollution-induced food safety problem in China, including the impact of environmental pollution on food safety and the policy response of Chinese government since 1970's. The results show that, to different degrees, food safety of China is affected by large but inefficient chemical fertilizer and pesticides residue (although the consumption began to decline after around 2015), cropland heavy metal pollution (especially cadmium), water pollution, and high ozone concentration. The evolution of pollution-induced food safety policies of China can be divided into four stages, i.e., preparation stage (1974–1994), construction stage (1995–2005), elaboration stage (2006–2013), and intensification stage (2014–). Through the four stages, the increasingly stringent policy system has been featured by “from supply-safety balance to safety first,” “from multi-agency management to integrated management,” and “from
香京julia种子在线播放
Food safety is the basic requirement for human health and public safety. It is both necessary and challenging to ensure food safety as it is related to the whole supply chain, involving production, processing, storage, transport, and trade. In recent decades, along with the transformation from traditional agriculture to intensive farming and the rapid industrialization and urbanization around the globe, environmental pollution has become an important source of food insecurity. The pollution, along with the food production, including soil and water pollution and excessive use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, will accumulate toxic substances in the agricultural product, such as sulfates, nitrates, and heavy metals (
So far, pollution-induced food safety problems have been widely reported around the world. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), one third of the plastic produced globally ends up in the soil with plastic particles then entering the food chain and the environment.
Facing with the largest population and food shortage challenge of the world, since 1950's, increasing inputs of inorganic fertilizers, organic manures, and pesticides has become the principal means for China to attain high-crop yields and greater livestock production (
In order to combat the food security threat induced by industrial pollution and overuse of toxic agricultural inputs, the Chinese government has adopted a series of pointed policies. As early as in 1974, the “Key Points and Main Measures of Environmental Protection Planning” issued by the Environmental Protection Leading Group of the State Council prescribed that “the use of highly residual and highly toxic pesticides in the production of tea, tobacco, Chinese herbal medicine, melon, fruit, vegetables, and other crops should be immediately stopped.” In 1995, China issued the first law on food safety, “Food Hygiene Law of China.” In 2009, the law was replaced by the “Food Safety Law of China,” which “prohibited the production and trade of food, food additives, and food-related products containing pollutants such as pesticide residues, veterinary medicine residues, biotoxins, and heavy metals, and other hazardous substances that exceed the food safety standards.” In 2015 and 2018, the law was amended two times. With the deepening of the supervision over the pollution-induced food safety problem, in 2015, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of China promulgated the “Action Plan for Zero Growth of Fertilizer Use by 2020” and “Action Plan for Zero Growth of Pesticide Use by 2020,” promoting the strictest ever prohibition on the use of agricultural inputs.
With the rising demand for both safe food and a cleaner environment, it is significant to alleviate the pollution-induced food safety problem in China. Although many relevant studies have paid attention to the issue, most of them scatter in different research fields and at different scales, and largely ignore the relevant public policies. Differently, this paper presents a systematic review for the pollution-induced food safety problem in China, including the impact of environmental pollution on food quality and the policy response of the government, which is expected to advance the understanding of the environment-food nexus and shed some light on the targeted policy making.
The usage of chemical inputs, cropland heavy pollution, sewage irrigation, and air pollution are all the sources of pollution affecting food safety. The overuse of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, the major source of persistent organic pollutants, and endocrine disruptors will impair plant metabolism and pollute the crops. The excessive chemical inputs will also enter soil, water, and air, and aggravate the environmental pollution due to the industrialization and urbanization. Once contacting with the contaminated soil and water, the plants will take up the toxic chemicals, which will be transferred to seeds and edible parts, and finally enter the human body through the food chain.
As shown in
The grain yield and fertilizer and pesticide consumption. Data source: (
What is worse is that the consumption intensity of chemical fertilizer and pesticide in China has almost kept rising during the past two decades, as shown in
The chemical fertilizer and pesticide consumption intensity in selected countries. Data source: Statistics Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization.
The extensive use of chemical inputs may boost the grain yield in short term, but the high residue is a big threat to food quality. In the inspection of the State Administration of Market Regulation in the first half of 2020, 36.42% of the unqualified food samples were still due to excessive residues of agricultural and veterinary drugs.
Organophosphate pesticide residues in grain.
Guangdong province | 9.6 | 4.0 | 125 | 2001 | ( |
Henan province | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1,000 | 2007 | ( |
Yingcheng city, Hubei province | 30.0 | 10.0 | 60 | 2007 | ( |
Tianmen city, Hubei province | 12.0 | 4.0 | 25 | 2008 | ( |
Jilin province | 25.5 | 24.5 | 102 | 2015 | ( |
Beijing | 30.0 | 20.0 | 22 | 2016 | ( |
Moreover, the non-point agricultural pollution containing chemical fertilizers and pesticides has put much pressure on the quality of soil, surface water, groundwater, and, finally, farm products, constituting a vicious circle between pollution and food production. According to the estimation of Shen et al. (
The intake of pollutants
Through a thorough review and calculation based on the existing studies,
The average heavy metal concentrations in agricultural soil in China (1974–2020). Data source: Data for 1974–2000 are compiled from Zhang et al. (
Overall, from 1974 to 2020, the average concentration of Cu (coef. = −0.0991,
Risk control standard for soil contamination of agricultural land (GB 15618-2018).
Cd | Paddy field | 0.3 | 0.4 | 0.6 | 0.8 | 1.5 | 2.0 | 3.0 | 4.0 |
Other | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.6 | |||||
Pb | Paddy field | 80 | 100 | 140 | 240 | 400 | 500 | 700 | 1,000 |
Other | 70 | 90 | 120 | 170 | |||||
Cr | Paddy field | 250 | 250 | 300 | 350 | 800 | 850 | 1,000 | 1,300 |
Other | 150 | 150 | 200 | 250 | |||||
Cu | Orchards | 150 | 150 | 200 | 200 | - | - | - | - |
Other | 50 | 50 | 100 | 100 | |||||
Zn | 200 | 200 | 250 | 300 | - | - | - | - |
The heavy metal concentrations in the farmland soil in different areas.
Overall, the cropland heavy metal pollution in the central and southwestern China is relatively serious, represented by the provinces and cities, such as Hunan, Henan, Guangxi, Sichuan, and Chongqing. Gansu and Liaoning provinces in north China are also prominent in heavy metal pollution. Out of the heavy metals, Cd pollution is the most serious in current China.
The heavy metal concentration in soil for growing different plants.
During the past two decades, a series of incidents on the heavy metal pollution in crop has been reported, which has threatened food security of China and even social stability.
Ten typical heavy metal contamination events in the past two decades.
2005 | Shaoguan city, Guangdong province | The surrounding river and cropland of a village was polluted by the Dabao Mountain Mine. In cropland, Pb concentration reached 225 ppm, 44 times of national standard, and Cd concentration reached 625 ppm, 18 times of national standard. Cd and Pb were also detected to be significantly high in the villagers' diet. |
2006 | Zhuzhou city, Hunan province | The crops and soil of a village was polluted by the discharge of industrial pollution and high Cd-content fertilizer. Mild cadmium poisoning was found for 150 villagers. |
2009 | Liuyang city, Hunan province | A village was polluted by a chemical plant producing zinc sulfate. The crops surrounding the plant got disease due to high Cd content. The Cd concentration in the urine of 509 of 2,888 people was diagnosed to exceed standard. |
2009 | Xi'an city, Shanxi province | The heavy metal content in many places in suburb Xi'an seriously exceeded the environmental standard. The copper in wheat and corn exceeded the standard by 2–5 times, and the Ld exceeded the standard by 2–6 times. |
2011 | Qujing city, Yuannan province | A chemical plant illegally transferred more than 5,000 tons of chromium slag, leading to the hexavalent Crin the farmland and aquifers reaching 200 and 106 times of standard. |
2012 | Yizhou district, Guangxi province | Longjiang River was seriously polluted by a mine factory and a flour mill, and the Cd content in the river reached 80 times of the standard. |
2013 | Dapu county, Hunan province | In a rice sampling and testing, more than half of rice from Dapu county, Hunan province were found to contain excessive Cd. In Youxian county, 90% of paddy soil had Cd contamination and over 70% of the grain samples exceeded the maximum safe concentration. |
2014 | Daxin county, Guangxi province | The cropland in a village was polluted by the sewage discharged by a lead zinc mine, and the Cd content exceeded the standard by 30 times. |
2017 | Jiujiang city, Jiangxi province | The Cr content in rice samples from Jiujiang city was found to be 1.56 times of standard. |
2017 | Xinxiang city, Henan province | The Cd content in all the 12 random wheat samples from Xinyang, collected by an environmental NGO, was found to exceed the standard by 1.7–1.8 times. |
In addition to heavy metal, some metalloid in the cropland, such as As, can cause serious health hazards. Acute and chronic As exposure would result in disorders of the cardiovascular and other system, which may ultimately lead to cancer (
Health risk of As pollution for adult females in agricultural regions. Data source: Yang et al. (
Water contributes over 40% of agricultural production.
Since 1950's, China has used sewage for cropland irrigation (
The amount of sewage for irrigation in China. Data source: National Agricultural Environmental Quality Survey Cooperation Group of Sewage Irrigation Area (
Long-term use of sewage for irrigation will pollute cropland and agricultural products with excessive heavy metal and pathogens.
The heavy metal/metalloid concentration in some sewage irrigated areas (mg/kg).
Zhengzhou, Henan | Rice | - | 0.016 | 0.21 | 0.10 | ( |
|
Wheat | - | 0.02 | 0.18 | 0.11 | |||
Baiyin, Gansu | Wheat | 6.84 | - | - | ( |
||
Beijing | Wheat | 6.09 | 0.04 | 0.17 | - | ( |
|
Anhui | Rice | 8.7 | - | 0.06 | ( |
||
Hebei | Wheat | 1.79 | 0.015 | 0.69 | 0.15 | - | ( |
Baiyin,Gansu | Wheat | 7.61 | - | - | ( |
The pathogen content in some sewage irrigated areas.
Beijing | Intestinal pathogenic bacteria | 27.9% | ( |
|
Chifeng, Inner Mongolia | Intestinal pathogenic bacteria | 25% | ( |
|
Beijing | 8.9 ± 0.19 × 104 (CFU/mL) | ( |
||
Beijing | Fecal coliforms | 2.4 × 105 (CFU/mL) | ( |
|
Beijing | 1.0 × 103-1.1 × 104 (CFU/mL) | |||
Shijiazhuang, Hebei | 3 × 104 (CFU/g) | ( |
According to the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Ministry of Land Resources (
Air pollution,
The experiment results on the impact of O3 on crop yield.
Jiaxing city, Zhejiang province | Wheat | Charcoal filtered air | 75/100 ppb | ↓ 8.5–58.0% | ( |
Wheat | Charcoal filtered air | 150/200 ppb | ↓ 40–73% | ||
Jiangdu district, Jiangsu province | Winter Wheat | Non-filtered ambient air | 25% above the ambient O3 concentration | ↓ 20% | ( |
Rice | ↓ 12% | ||||
Gucheng county, Hubei province | Wheat | Charcoal filtered air | Non-filtered ambient air | ↓ 4.7% | ( |
50 ppb | ↓ 10.5% | ||||
100 ppb | ↓ 58.6% | ||||
Rice | Charcoal filtered air | Non-filtered ambient air | ↓ 7.3% | ||
50 ppb | ↓ 8.2% | ||||
100 ppb | ↓ 26.1% |
Overall, Wang and Mauzerall (
In order to fight against the pollution-induced food safety threat, the Chinese government has made and adopted a large number of policies. However, there are no special decrees for the pollution-induced food safety issue. The relevant policies are all distributed in different legislations. Based on bibliometric and policy document analysis, this paper identifies 4,471 relevant articles in 1,180 policies and analyzes the policy evolution concerning the pollution-induced food safety issue of China.
The primary source of the policy documents is
To search for relevant policies, the first step is to determine the policy keyword. The pollution-induced food safety issue may be mentioned in both decrees on environmental protection and food safety. Therefore, from the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) database, this study first obtained all the published literatures with “food safety” and “environmental pollution” in titles, abstracts, and keywords, and got 3,937 pieces of literature about food safety and 5,829 pieces of literature about environmental pollution. Next, since the keyword provides the most important information of literature, this study determined the policy keywords according to the high-frequency keywords in the pieces of literature and their co-words. For example, three of the high-frequency keywords were “Pharmaceutical sewage,” “Printing and dyeing sewage,” and “Aquaculture sewage.” “Sewage” was then selected as a policy keyword to involve the relevant policies as extensive as possible. Finally, this paper used “food,” “pesticide,” and “agricultural product” as the policy keywords for food safety, and “environment,” “green development,” “heavy metal,” “pollution,” and “sewage” as the policy keywords for environmental protection.
Next, this paper used the combination of one keyword for food safety and one keyword for environmental protection to conduct full text search in
This study used a text mining technique to analyze the selected policy texts. Firstly, based on the Python Jieba module, the sentences in the text were separated into individual words to obtain the basic units for analysis. Since Python may separate a proper noun into multiple basic words, this study customized additional nouns for special organizations and regions in Python Jieba modules, such as “Standing Committee of the National People's Congress” and “Yangtze River Delta.” Second, based on the stop words list developed by Harbin University of Technology, the meaningless words, such as “overall” and “in short,” were removed. Third, the keywords in the documents were extracted with the Jieba module and the TF-IDF model. Based on the Bag-of-Words model, the TF-IDF model is used to evaluate the importance of a word in the text and extract the keywords based on unique representation instead of frequency (
In addition, this paper employed co-word analysis and convergence of iterated correlations (CONCOR) clustering to visualize the connection between the policy keywords (
As shown in
The number of policies involving the pollution-induced food safety issue.
According to the classification of
The central government and over 54 ministries have ever issued relevant policies. Among them, the State Council, National Development and Reform Commission, State Administration for Market Regulation, National Health Commission, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Standing Committee of National People's Congress, Ministry of Ecology and Environment are the main policymakers, having issued over 30 policies, respectively.
Since the “Notice of the State Council on Strengthening the Work of ‘Vegetable Basket' in the New Stage” in 2002, the number of policies jointly issued by different departments has substantially increased. According to
The cooperative network in jointly published policy documents.
As shown in
The policy evolution on pollution-induced food safety of China.
In 1974, the Chinese government started to pay attention to the pollution-induced food safety problem. For the first time, the Environmental Protection Leading Group of the State Council limited the pesticide residues in crops in the “Key Points and Main Measures of Environmental Protection Planning.” Up to 1994, 42 relevant policies had been issued, and most of them appeared in the relevant environmental policies proposed by the environmental agency.
The co-word network of the keywords in the policies in 1974–1994.
Reflected by the keywords such as “prevent,” “formulate,” and “strengthen,” in this stage, the government mainly adopted directional measures regarding the restrictions of highly toxic pesticides and chemical fertilizers, such as the “Administrative Rules for Pesticide Registration” in 1982 and “Notice of the General Office of the State Council on Strengthening the Management of Pesticides and Veterinary Drugs” in 1992. High efficiency, safety, and economy were the main targets for the chemical input monitoring in this stage. The measures included, e.g., “improving the chemical fertilizer structure and fertilization technology,” “well-detecting the pesticide and veterinary drug residues in the domestic and exported agricultural products,” and “registering fertilizers and pesticides produced and sold by any organization and individual and involving the chemical residues and the impact on the atmosphere, water, and soil in the registration.”
However, in a country with such a large population, keeping the growth of grain output and ensuring a stable food supply had always been a requisite for China. Therefore, the government still had a strong dependence on chemical inputs to boost crop production. From the 6th Five-Year Plan (FYP) for National Economy and Social Development (1981–1985) to 8th FYP (1991–1995), increasing the supply of chemical fertilizers and pesticides was still listed as a main task.
By the end of the twentieth century, the food supply in China was basically stable and sufficient. The government and society thus started to pay more attention to food quality and safety. In 1995, the first food law of China, “Food Hygiene Law of the People's Republic of China,” was promulgated, raising the pollution-induced food safety issue to the judicial level. From 1995 to 2005, a total of 178 policies were issued, establishing the solid institutional foundation for the regulative actions.
According to the co-word network of the top 50 keywords during 1995–2005 (
The co-word network of the keywords in the policies in 1995–2005.
In this stage, with the increasing international requirements for the quality of exported agricultural products and improvement of awareness of the government on environmental protection, the focus of the chemical input supervision was shifted from supply to security, including low toxicity, low residue, and high efficiency. The target was to produce more “organic food,” “non-pollution food,” and “green food.” Various measures, such as standard management, market-access control, routine monitoring, follow-up supervision, and sampling inspection, were adopted. The policy innovation was primarily reflected in the “Management Measures of the Organic Food Certification” in 2001, and the “General Principles for the Examination of Food Quality Safety for Market Access” in 2004.
In addition, the food safety supervision became more precise. For example, in 2005, the “Hygienic Standard for Grains” (GB 2715-2005) divided the pollutant residues into that in vegetables, rice, soybean, tea, and other food crops. In this period, besides government regulation, more diverse measures and social power were involved to prevent and control the food pollution. For example, the China Rural Special Technology Association was established in 1995 to deliver better knowledge of the appropriate use of agrochemicals for farmers. With the strengthening of public consciousness on food safety, the central government began to regularly release the testing reports of chemical residues in the inspected food samples in order to meet the public right to know and further improve the quality supervision of the agricultural products.
In this period, the environmental pollution-oriented food management system was initially formed. With increasing reports on the pollution of agricultural products, in 2006, the “Law on the Safety of the Agricultural Product Quality” was promulgated to reinforce the control of the pollution-induced food safety problem with the rule of law. Since 2006, the chemical fertilizer consumption intensity has gradually slowed down. From 2006 to 2014, a total of 440 decrees involving pollution control of agricultural production were issued.
The co-word network of the keywords in the policies in 2006–2013.
First of all, more official standards were made to promote the standardized management of food pollution. For example, in 2007, China took the recommendation of the UN and started to implement the global standard on food safety management systems (ISO 22000). During 2011–2015, China formulated 4,140 pesticide residue limit standards and 1,584 veterinary drug residue limit standards (
In addition, the source control of food pollution was given more priority with a series of legislations and regulations issued to promote the pollution control in the place of origin of food, such as the “Administrative Measures for the Safety Management of Agricultural Producing Area” in 2006, “Measures for the Administration of Pesticide Labels and Manuals” in 2007, and “Inspection and Acceptance Method of Veterinary Drug Production Quality Management Standard” in 2010. In 2007, the National Agricultural Product Quality and Safety Risk Assessment Expert Committee was established to carry out risk analysis on the potential hazards that may affect the quality of agricultural products. In the same year, the Ministry of Agriculture at the time proposed to implement the coding of places of origin of agricultural products. By enabling the tracing of agricultural products to their original producing area, the regulatory authority is able to prompt the cleaner growing environment and production process.
In this period, the development of agricultural science and technology was also more emphasized. For example, the “Law on the Safety of the Agricultural Product Quality” in 2006 prescribed that the agricultural agency at the county level or above shall promote the construction of comprehensive demonstration areas for standardized agricultural production, demonstration farms, breeding areas, and delimited animal- and plant-disease free zones to explore the safe and pollution-free agricultural production and provide experiences for other regions. In the “Notice of Ministry of Agriculture on Distributing 2010 Financial Project Guide,” pesticide residue monitoring and agricultural product quality supervision were listed as the key research projects. In 2012, a monitoring network composed of one national, 31 provincial, 226 Prefectural and municipal, and 50 county-level monitoring institutions was established by the General Office of the State Council to monitor 154 indicators on pesticide residues, heavy metals, biological toxins, food additives, and food-borne pathogenic organisms, etc.
Moreover, to coordinate different regulatory bodies and improve the efficiency of legal enforcement, the central government established the State Council Leading Group on Product Quality and Food Safety in 2007. Following the promulgation of the “Food Safety Law” in 2009, the State Council Food Security Committee composed of several high-ranking officials was established to specify the roles of different ministries and administrations in food safety management. In 2013, at the first meeting of the 12th National People's Congress, the new National Food and Drug Administration was established and served as a centralized authority, replacing the functions of other regulatory bodies (
With the promulgation of the “Action Plan for Zero Growth of Fertilizer Use by 2020” and “Action Plan for Zero Growth of Pesticide Use by 2020” in 2015, the strictest ever food pollution supervision system covering the whole food management process was set up, pushing the food pollution control into an intensification stage. According to
The co-word network of the keywords in the policies during 2014–2020.
According to the co-word network of the top 50 keywords in
To intensify the quality control of agricultural products, in January 2014, the Ministry of Agriculture at the time announced 2014 as the “National Agricultural Product Quality and Safety Supervision Year.” Later, a series of important laws about pollution and food safety, including the “Environmental Protection Law of the People's Republic of China,” “Food Safety Law of the People's Republic of China,” and the “Law on the Safety of the Agricultural Product Quality” was successively amended in 2014, 2015, and 2018.
In this period, the pollution-control system in food management became more stringent with clear requirements for local governments and relevant stakeholders. For example, in 2016, “13th FYP for Hygiene and Health” of China (2016–2020) prescribed to formulate and amend no <300 standards on pesticides and veterinary drugs. The “Notice of the General Office of the State Council on the Key Work Arrangement of Food Safety in 2016” prescribed the accountability system of the provincial governors and the specific duties of each ministry on grain safety: the Ministry of Agriculture was mainly responsible for the environmental protection of the source of edible farm product, the Ministry of Environment was responsible for controlling heavy-metal pollution in grain, and the Ministry of Science and Technology and other relevant ministries were responsible for making standards for chemical residue.
Furthermore, strengthening the propaganda and education of legislations on the safety of agricultural products and agricultural inputs became an important measure to fight against the pollution-induced food safety problem. Besides, with the unprecedented emphasis on environmental protection in this period, the sustainable agriculture featured by ecology and environment-friendly and resource recycling is advocated and stressed. According to the “Guidelines for Eco Circular Agriculture Projects in Agricultural Comprehensive Development Areas (2017–2020)” issued in 2017, China would establish about 300 pilot programs for ecological and circular agriculture.
Based on extensive literature study and policy document analysis, this paper reviews the environmental pollution-induced food safety problem in China, including the impact of environmental pollution on food safety and the policy response of the Chinese government since 1970's. The main findings of the research are as follows.
Agricultural development of China still relies heavily on agrochemical inputs, with the largest chemical fertilizer and pesticides consumption in the world, while the utilization efficiency is still much lower than that of the developed countries. Intensive but inefficient agrochemical consumption produces a large amount of residue in soil and plants and brings a great challenge to the food safety of the country.
The heavy metal pollution of cropland is salient that about 10.18% of cropland of China is polluted by heavy metals, and 13.86% of grain production is thus affected (
Water pollution, including general water pollution and sewage irrigation, is another important source for the food safety problem because the pollutants in the polluted water will be deposited in the cropland and transported to crops. Although the Chinese government has prohibited the irrigation with sewage with heavy metals and/or persistent organic pollutants since 2013, the policy implementation is challenging due to the lack of qualified water, especially for the North China Plain. According to the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Ministry of Land Resources (
In the past decades, O3 concentration of China has been rising fast, and the mean of the daily 24-h average concentration has reached over 50 ppb during the crop-growing season in some regions (
Since 1974, Chinese government has paid attention to the pollution-induced food safety problem. Up to 2020, the central government and over 54 ministries have issued about 1,180 policies involving 4,471 articles on the pollution-induced food safety issue. A cooperative network of 42 ministries with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, National Development and Reform Commission, and Ministry of Ecology and Environment as the main cores has been established. According to the time when landmark legislations were promulgated, the evolution of pollution-induced food safety policies of China can be divided into four stages, i.e., preparation stage (1974–1994), construction stage (1995–2005), elaboration stage (2006–2013), and intensification stage (2014–). Through the four stages, the supervision over the chemical input has always been the most important policy focus. The increasingly stringent policy system has been featured by “from supply-safety balance to safety first,” “from multiagency management to integrated management,” and “from
Last but not least, the pollution-induced food safety problem involves both agricultural and environmental agencies, so more collaborations between the two agencies and more special policies for pollution-induced food safety should be anticipated. In the meantime, more systematic studies over the causal relationship between environmental pollution and food quality, especially the emerging contaminants, such as microbial pathogens, persistent organic pollutants, and greenhouse gases, are also necessary for a profound understanding of the issue.
LL: designed the research. QL and KZ: collected data, conducted analysis, and wrote draft. LL and XS: edited the text and finalized the submission. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.
The study was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Number: 71704126).
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.
1FAO. Increased soil contamination puts food safety and food security at risk.
2FAO. New UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration offers unparalleled opportunity for job creation, food security and addressing climate change.
3UNECE. Air pollution and food production.
4
5State Administration of Market Regulation. Circular of the State Administration of Market Regulation on the Food Safety Supervision and Sampling Inspection in the First Half of 2020.
6National food security strategy from the perspective of modern agricultural development.
7The irrigation water quality has always been a policy focus that, after 1992, the standard was successively revised in 2005, 2008, and 2021.
8In 2006, Shanghai Food and Drug Administration detected nitrofuran metabolites in all the 30 aquatic product samples collected from a number of markets, and enrofloxacin, ciprofloxacin, chloramphenicol, malachite green, erythromycin, and other banned fish residues were detected in part of samples.
9In 2007, the crops and soil of Xinma village of Zhuzhou, Hunan was polluted by industrial pollution and high Cd-content fertilizer. Mild cadmium poisoning was found for 150 villagers.
10In 2013, Guangzhou Food and Drug Administration found over-standard Cd in eight of 18 batches of rice samples, and six batches of them were produced in Hunan Province.