On July 3, The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of China said Chinese food products are getting safer, and tests on 3,384 different kinds of foodstuff showed about 86 percent were up to standard. The products from 2,777 processing companies, involved 35 categories, including milk, beer, jelly, fruit juice, milk powder, canned goods, and dried food and nuts. The Chinese top quality supervisor reassure consumers following a number of safety scandals, said records of the past 22 years showed the safety of food products had been steadily increasing since 1998. "The proportion of food products tested and qualified in the first half was the highest in recent years," Ji Zhengkun, director of the administration's quality inspection department, said. Beer, fruit juice and dried food and nuts saw the biggest improvement in quality, he said. Tests from January to last month showed that 89.3 percent of beer products met required standards, 5.2 percent higher than last year, and 80 percent of fruit juices, up 4.1 percent. Figures showed 92 percent of dried food and nuts were also up to required standards. Inspectors did not find any excessive use of food additives, a problem once common in dried food. For those that did not qualify, Ji said irregular labeling was mainly to blame. At least 97.5 percent of juices tested were up to standard, if labeling was not taken into consideration. Ji attributed the quality improvement to stricter supervision and the implementation of a market access mechanism. But he admitted there were still problems. Excessive use of food additives and pathogenic bacteria such as the coli groups were found in some samples. Reports of substandard food often appear in the media and the issue burst into the international spotlight when allegedly tainted additives, exported from China, contaminated pet food in North America. However, Ji said one company's problem did not make it a national problem. "If some food is below standard, you can't say all the country's food is unsafe," he said. "We must have confidence in our foodstuff."

Also on July 3, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Qin Gang held a regular press conference and answered questions on the quality and safety of Chinese exports. During his talks, Qin Gang said that China had taken a responsible attitude and made earnest efforts to ensure the quality and safety of Chinese exports. Chinese government attaches great importance to the quality and safety of Chinese exports. China has been very responsible in every phase of production, circulation, import and export, as well as legislation, execution, supervision and management to ensure the good quality and safety of its exports. Qin attributed the export problems to "misunderstanding", illegal producers and differences in the inspection systems and policies of China and other countries. Qin said more than 99 percent of Chinese food exports to the US in the last three years had met quality standards, or even higher than the equivalent figure for US food exports to China. Qin also urged the media not to exaggerate the problems, warning that the widespread media coverage would "lead to panic among consumers. "We understand the concerns of consumers abroad about the food and medicine safety. Meanwhile we hope the media can cover the issue in an objective and rational manner, not to exaggerate, complicate or even politicalize the matter" he said. "We are willing to carry out cooperation with other countries on product safety and quality in order to provide consumer domestic and abroad with safe, reliable and high quality products." said Qin.