By staff reporter Liu Jingjing and intern researcher Jacob Levinson

From Caijing Online

On November 19, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) opened its first Chinese offices in Beijing. Two more branches will follow, one in Shanghai and another in Guangzhou. The FDA’s new presence in China is part of an effort by the United States to improve import safeguards in the wake of several food scandals in China.

Secretary for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Mike Leavitt and FDA Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach traveled to China this week to meet with Chinese government officials and local manufacturers.

“We are opening up a new era, not just new offices,” Secretary Leavitt said. The U.S. commission is expected to discuss policy reforms aimed at improving food safety regulation in China. In December, two similar offices will be established in India and another two in Latin America.

Eschenbach said at a November 18 press conference in Beijing that the FDA will look for credible, independent, third-party institutions in China to inspect food exported to the U.S.  The local partner can be either commercial or government-affiliated, but must be under the strict scrutiny of the FDA, he said.

In 2007, the United States and China signed two Memoranda of Agreement establishing a framework for collaboration on food and drug safety, seeking to ensure that products imported from China would meet the United States’ regulatory standards. The agreement allowed for greater information sharing between the two countries’ regulatory agencies, and started the development of an electronic tracking system to monitor the path of food products, from production to exportation.

Secretary Leavitt stressed the need for a new comprehensive food safety strategy as the volume of imports entering the United States continues to increase. In 2007 alone, the United States imported US$ 2 trillion worth of goods from 825,000 importers across the world.

Last year, pet food contaminated with the industrial chemical melamine was blamed for the deaths of scores of dogs and cats in the United States. In September, the Chinese government revealed that milk tainted with same chemical had resulted in four deaths and the hospitalization of over 50,000 children.