Third party testing will play an important role in the food and pharmaceutical industry in the future

The rise of third-party detection capabilities

According to the 12th Five Year Plan for the National Food Safety Supervision System, the monitoring of food pollutants and harmful factors will cover all county-level administrative regions in the future. Compared with 2010, there will be 2526 new monitoring points nationwide, and the monitoring sample size will be expanded to 2.87 million per year. Based on this calculation, it is expected to drive the food testing market size to over 20 billion yuan, with an average annual compound growth rate of over 50%.

With the intervention of social forces, third-party food safety supervision is playing an important role. It is understood that third-party testing institutions in China started relatively late, but have developed rapidly. According to statistics, the size of China's testing market was around 65 billion yuan in 2010, and grew to about 90 billion yuan in 2012. As of the end of 2013, there were over 6000 laboratories engaged in food and agricultural product testing in China, including more than 5000 laboratories that have obtained national metrology certification and can provide testing services to the outside world, with a market size exceeding 100 billion yuan. Among them, food safety testing accounts for a considerable share. Industry insiders have stated that currently, the construction of county-level agricultural product testing institutions in China, mainly under the responsibility of the Ministry of Agriculture, has been carried out nationwide. These testing stations can basically complete routine quantitative testing of most food and agricultural products, including pesticide residues, heavy metals, illegal additives, and nutritional components. These newly established institutions will be combined with the existing local food testing, which will basically solve the food and drug safety testing problems at most county levels in the country.

Associate Professor Fan Zhihong from the Department of Nutrition and Food Safety Engineering at the School of Food Science, China Agricultural University believes that the credibility of the domestic government is declining, and there is a lack of regulatory strength. At this point, as a third-party inspection agency independent of the government in terms of mechanism, it has made a good compensation for the public's knowledge of food safety.

Third party testing is valued from national to local levels

On November 19th, the National Food Safety (Hengqin) Innovation Project was officially launched in Hengqin. The project will focus on building the National Food Safety Innovation Center, Third Party Inspection and Testing Center, National Food Safety Cloud Service Platform, Fund based Food Safety Financial Service Platform, and National Food Safety E-commerce Park, establishing a world-class food safety industry demonstration and promotion system.

The launch of this project once again demonstrates the country's determination to strictly manage food and drug safety, and also indicates that the Chinese government is paying more and more attention to the significance of third-party testing in maintaining food and drug safety, making third-party inspection agencies an important force in ensuring food safety.

On October 11th, the Fujian Provincial Government and Provincial Political Consultative Conference held a symposium on the supervision and implementation of key proposals for the "Suggestions on Leveraging the Role of Third Party Testing Institutions in Food Supervision". In response to the suggestions put forward by the research group, the heads of the provincial food and drug supervision and administration bureau and other departments stated at the symposium that they will actively promote the planned opening of the provincial inspection and testing market led by the provincial food safety office, encourage and support the participation of third-party inspection agencies, formulate highly operable selection methods and bidding rules for government procurement of food inspection services, ensure the maximum degree of introduction of third-party inspection agencies to participate in the competition of government procurement services openly and fairly, gradually increase the proportion of purchasing services from third-party food inspection agencies, and make third-party food inspection agencies an important force in ensuring food safety.

At the end of October, with the approval of the Shandong Provincial Government, the Provincial Food and Drug Administration, Provincial Development and Reform Commission, Provincial Department of Finance, Provincial Department of Human Resources and Social Security, and five other departments jointly issued the "Guiding Opinions on Strengthening the Construction of Food Safety Inspection and Testing Capacity". The guiding opinions have established the goal of building the food inspection and testing capacity in Shandong Province. By the end of 2015, a preliminary food safety inspection and testing capacity will be formed, with provincial inspection and testing institutions as the backbone, municipal inspection and testing institutions as the backbone, county-level inspection and testing institutions as the foundation, and third-party inspection and testing institutions as supplements. This will lay the foundation for the comprehensive construction of a food safety inspection and testing system with reasonable layout, coordinated and unified operation during the 13th Five Year Plan period.

Obstacles to development, urgent need for targeted treatment in the future

The Notice of the General Office of the State Council on Issuing the Key Work Arrangements for Food Safety in 2014 clearly states that "we will implement the plan for building food safety inspection (supervision) capabilities, accelerate the construction of quality and safety inspection systems for food and agricultural products in counties and townships, strengthen the construction of grassroots food safety inspection capabilities, and improve the technical level of frontline regulatory and law enforcement teams." This means that the construction of government led agricultural and food inspection institutions will be further strengthened. Therefore, some argue that it is still difficult for third-party testing agencies to intervene in the field of food safety in the short term.

Liu Wei, from a food inspection agency in Beijing, stated that "policy documents indicate the country's attitude of supporting social forces to join the food inspection service industry and providing them with policy space for development." However, in Liu Wei's view, "currently, except for large companies with strong capabilities, most domestic testing companies still have concerns about accepting government purchased services." Industry insiders explained that for enterprises, the first thing to consider is investment risk. Food safety testing is different from other product testing, and the large investment in projects requires a lot of funds for testing instruments and equipment. Individuals or enterprises investing in the construction of food inspection laboratories may face significant financial pressure.

In addition, the dispersed structure, small scale, and low degree of standardization have also become obstacles to the further development of inspection and testing institutions. Wu Jinsheng, Director of the Science and Technology Department of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, pointed out that "inspection and testing institutions must adapt to three trends: first, the scale of inspection and testing institutions, second, the marketization of testing business, and third, the standardization of inspection and testing standards

Song Guilan, Deputy Secretary General of the China National Accreditation Service for Conformity Assessment, mentioned the issue of third-party testing institutions' "transformation" and said that in the context of economic integration, the development of convenient trade has become a consensus. It is also an inevitable trend for governments around the world to fully utilize the results recognized by testing institutions, therefore, Chinese testing institutions should be prepared.

The third-party testing industry in China is currently in an important period of historical development. The integration of inspection, testing, and certification institutions, the government's purchase of services from society, and the ongoing reform of public institutions will all have a significant impact on the development of China's third-party testing industry. In the future, the growth space of the third-party industry is enormous, "said Wei Chuanzhong, President of the China Inspection and Quarantine Society.

Industry insiders point out that with the upgrading and transformation of Chinese products, as well as the demand for brand building, there is also great development space for designing and creating voluntary product certifications. The technological strength behind detection is even more important, such as food testing, which may seem saturated, but there is still considerable room for research and evaluation in terms of explicit compliance, functional compliance, potential harm detection to the human body, and other aspects of food.