Insights into the nature of food safety issues in Beijing through content analysis of an Internet database of food safety incidents in China

Abstract

Beijing, as the capital of the world's most populous nation, has been at the forefront in food safety management in mainland China. Yet, food safety incidents have frequently occurred. To gain insights into the nature of food safety incidents occurred in Beijing, content analysis was carried out on an Internet database of food safety incidents, the “Throwing out the window net”, which has collected a representative subset of food safety incidents occurred in China since 2001. It is found 1) among the 295 food safety incidents, 150 were issued by governmental agencies, and 145 were reported by news media; 2) the government alone, as an originator, has the highest percentage of 52.5% for exposing the incidents; 3) the types of food involved in food safety incidents mainly include (i) fruits and vegetables, (ii) meat and meat products, (iii) cereals and cereal products, and (iv) confectionery. They account for 19.3%, 18.0%, 14.9%, 13.6%, respectively; 4) the main stage detected for the 295 food safety incidents happened over the past decade is the stage of production and processing, accounting for 73.4%; and 5) human factor is the major underlying cause, accounting for 99% of the cases collected by the database. A little fortunately, the number of food safety incidents caused by fraud is less than those caused by un-intentional human errors. Otherwise, one would have been exceedingly depressed.