Jan 31 2012 --- Food safety has been China’s Achilles heel for the past few years, and new data that reveals 51% of food inspections conducted in Mainland China during 2011 failed only adds to country’s food-safety woes.

According to the recent AsiaInspection 2011 Q4 Barometer, a quarterly synopsis of Asia-based manufacturing and the quality control services industry, while the majority of these inspections were failed because of minor defects, 10% were for critical defects with an extreme case involving contamination by a large quantity of rodent fecal matter. The fact that over half of all Chinese food inspections fail is even more alarming when compared to an average failure rate for non-food products of about 30%.

China’s State Administration for Industry and Commerce also reported 62,000 illegal food cases were reported in 2011. Authorities also stopped the operation of 43,000 unlicensed food-producing businesses found to be operating illegally and revoked the business licenses of 576 operators during the same period.

The report also noted food packaging had a 57% inspection failure rate in 2011. “Food packaging defects may not seem critical," said Sebastien Breteau, CEO of AsiaInspection. “But by the time food leaves the factory and hits store shelves, toxic amounts of contaminants like formaldehyde and lead can leech out of packaging, contaminate food and cause serious harm to consumers."

“China exported over 4.5 billion tons of food in 2011 alone," said Antoine Bloch, Asia Pacific Vice President of Silliker, a partner of AsiaFoodInspection with AsiaInspection. “With chemical and natural contaminants threatening food available to all of us, the need for prevention in the form of comprehensive laboratory testing has never been clearer."