Safeguarding Children's Food Safety Urgently Needs Standard First

According to the China Youth Daily, many parents now prefer products labeled "children's food" when buying food for their children, believing that they are more in line with their children's physical development and that such products are often more expensive. But in fact, for children over 3 years old, there is no special food safety standard in our country. Many so-called "children's food" have no different ingredients from general food, and even are not suitable for children to eat. In recent years, many food merchants have no bottom line in making money, playing the "children" brand indiscriminately, labeling the word "children" on various kinds of food and publicizing it widely and selling it at high prices. Parents of children are easily "fooled" by words such as "special for children" and "special for children", and rush to buy them regardless of cost. These so-called "children's food" generally contain "more than four" - multi-additives, polysaccharides, salt and oil, which bring health risks to children. For example, the so-called "children's drink" actually adds more pigments and flavors and sugar to children. These children's foods are not only harmful to children's health, but also harmful. For this reason, market regulators have warned that there is no so-called "children's food" standards in the country, and consumers should be cautious about "children's special food". Indeed, at present, there is no food standard specifically for children in China, but only the relevant standards for infant food, which mainly establishes food safety standards for infant formula food and supplementary food for 0-36 months. Some scholars have shown that the food safety standards of infant formula in China are basically consistent with those of the European Union. For infants (0 - 6 months), the difference is small, most of the indicators are close. However, for older infants (6 to 36 months) of formula food, China's index requirements are relatively relaxed.

For children over 3 years of age, there is no specific food safety standards for children in China, let alone a clear definition of "children's food". Studies have shown that in daily snack consumption, children's consumption is 2-3 times higher than that of adults on average. As far as food additives are concerned, there are more than 10 kinds of food additives taken by children every day, which are dangerous to exceed the standard. At present, when formulating the standard of food additives, the State formulates the standard of 60 kg adults. There is no specific standard for the intake of additives between infants and adults, and the amount of additives does not take into account the safety factors of children's bodies. In the labeling of children's food, there are few national standards and regulations. At present, only one standard of "jelly" stipulates that food safety warning should be labeled on the label of products. In addition, it is worth noting that children's body is not yet mature and their ability to excrete is poor. If they take additives according to adult's standard, it will undoubtedly bring risks to children's health. Therefore, food provided to children should have stricter standards in terms of safety and nutrition. Relevant departments should formulate and implement strict legal provisions and standards for children's food, constantly improve the scientific and technological content, practical value and personality characteristics of national standards and industry standards, and fully meet the needs of industry development, market system and the general public. At the same time, guide and encourage industry enterprises to produce and develop more safe and nutritionally balanced food suitable for children.

It is imperative that stricter safety standards be established for food frequently eaten by children over three years of age, requiring manufacturers to produce the "green children's edition" while producing the "ordinary edition" for children and parents to choose. "Green Children's Edition" food should have fewer kinds of additives and lower allowable limits.

The state should also promulgate regulations as soon as possible, requiring that people should be aware of what is really suitable for children's consumption of leisure food or beverage, clearly write the ingredients and label the ingredient list in the product packaging or instructions, and clearly label the nutritional ingredients and energy values of food, so as to help consumers make correct choices. In addition, it is also essential to further improve the testing standards and quality certification system, strengthen the quality awareness of production and business enterprises, and establish a monitoring, testing and early warning mechanism for children's food safety.