Ningxia Shizuishan Administration for Industry & Commerce Safeguards Halal Food Safety During the Holidays

To ensure order in the halal food market during the Spring Festival, safeguard the consumer safety of the Muslim public, and create a harmonious and stable social environment, the Shizuishan Administration for Industry and Commerce in Ningxia recently acted to safeguard halal food safety during the holidays.

To safeguard the dietary safety of halal food in Shizuishan during the holidays, the Shizuishan Administration for Industry and Commerce plans to take the following measures:

1. Emphasize inspection of the qualifications of food producers and operators.

Focus on checking whether food producers and operators with 'Halal' signboards have the 'Halal Food Operation Permit' issued by the ethnic affairs department and the Halal signboard. Severely investigate and punish illegal acts such as forging, transferring, renting out or selling the 'Halal Food Operation Permit' and Halal signboard, and unauthorized posting or hanging of Halal food advertising signboards or pattern marks symbolizing Halal meaning to mislead consumers.

2. Emphasize inspection of the operating facilities of food producers and operators.

Focus on checking whether Halal food operators place Halal food and non-Halal food in separate zones as required, supervise and guide Halal food operators in setting up Halal food zones, dedicated counters and Halal food sign boards; for food producers and operators that have not set up Halal food zones or dedicated counters as required or whose Halal marks are not obvious, order them to rectify within a time limit; prohibit on-site cooking of Halal-taboo food in enclosed business premises such as shopping malls and supermarkets, and severely crack down on illegal business practices of selling counterfeit or substandard Halal food.

3. Emphasize inspection of the business conduct of food producers and operators.

Focus on checking the business activities of food producers and operators. Supervise and guide enterprises and individual businesses that produce and operate Halal food to strengthen the management of production and operation facilities and premises according to the requirements of Halal dietary customs, and to be equipped with sales vehicles, sales baskets and cashier channels bearing the Halal mark. Severely investigate and punish the illegal use of non-Halal food raw materials and additives in the production and processing process, and the use of packaging bearing the 'Halal' mark to package non-Halal food. Strictly inspect the packaging items bearing Halal marks and patterns at Halal food sales outlets and Halal beef-and-mutton wholesale markets, and investigate and punish according to law the illegal act of printing enterprises printing Halal marks and pattern packaging for food production and operation entities without a 'Halal Food Operation Permit.'

4. Strengthen inspection of the implementation of self-discipline systems by food producers and operators.

Focus on checking whether Halal food sellers establish and implement incoming-goods inspection and ticket-and-certificate-requesting systems, to ensure that the sources of incoming and outgoing goods are clear and traceable. At the same time, intensify the inspection of Halal meat slaughtering and sales stalls, and severely investigate and punish the slaughter, storage, transportation and sale of Halal beef, mutton and other Halal livestock and poultry meat not in accordance with Halal dietary customs.

As of now, the city's industry-and-commerce system has dispatched 130 person-times of law-enforcement personnel and 24 vehicle-times of enforcement vehicles, and inspected 160 Halal food operators. It guided 8 large shopping malls and supermarkets to set up Halal shopping carts, Halal shopping baskets and Halal cashier channels; helped 18 supermarkets set up Halal food zones, dedicated counters and Halal food sign boards, strictly separating Halal food from non-Halal food and keeping a certain distance; investigated and punished 38 illegal acts of unauthorized use of the Halal mark inside and outside business premises; and supervised and guided 21 restaurants and butcher shops with the conditions to operate Halal food in obtaining the 'Halal Food Operation Permit.'