Reasons for Reverse Flow of Expired Foods and Discussions on Solutions

In recent years, food safety accidents resulted from reverse flow of expired foods is of frequent occurrence. Therefore, finding out reasons for reverse flow of expired foods and taking effective measures to avoid reverse flow of expired foods are greatly significant to safeguard China’s food safety. From analysis on current recovery processing situations and related regulations of expired foods in China, it is found that reverse flow of expired food is mainly resulted from no law to comply with, no regulation to follow in recovery processing of expired foods, enterprises lacking good faith, and imperfect accountability system and supervision system. In view of these factors, it comes up with following recommendations: (1) Improving legal regulations on processing of expired foods; (2) Making clear responsibility investigation of supervision and law enforcing departments; (3) Setting up “Four in One” supervision mode integrating enterprise self-discipline, market supervision, social monitoring, and information platform; (4) Improving the supervision system for recovery processing of expired foods.