Constructing the accountability of food safety as a public problem in China: a document analysis of Chinese scholarship, 2008–2018

Abstract

Incessant food safety scandals in China have given rise to a loss of public trust in food safety, stimulating a series of studies focussing on food safety governance, accountability, and trust restoration. Against this backdrop, Chinese scholars are keen to reflect on different strategies for ensuring food safety public accountability and credibility, presenting different perspectives on issues like responsibility, trust, risk communication, and transparency. In this paper, we aim to get more in-depth insight into how Chinese scholarly debates co-construct public accountability for food safety as a public issue. We selected 51 articles from 10,790 candidates drawn from four Chinese academic databases for content analysis. Drawing from political theories on public accountability as well as science and technology studies, the analysis shows that arguments for a specific public accountability model (more or less centralised, more or less stakeholder participation) are intertwined with the specific role of scientific expertise (more or less authoritative, more or less democratising). As such, the analysis shows how scholarly debates on public accountability for food safety in China co-construct a public forum for discussing supervision and accountability, risk assessment, and transparency.

Stakeholder perspectives on infant formula safety governance in China: a decade after the melamine crisis

“…Meanwhile, societal actors could enhance their collaborative capacities so that they can play a more prominent role in food safety governance, even under non-democratic conditions. The same goes for open and reciprocal science communication between experts and citizens to help alleviate citizens' risk perception and favor public trust (Yang, Horstman, and Penders 2020a). Kent, Loh, and Eibel (2005) argue that with the increasingly risky infant formula chain the national governments are expected to conduct rigorous monitoring and regulation on infant formula safety to protect human health.…”

“…We focused on three main themes: (1) government and the accountability system, (2) risk assessment, and (3) risk communication. These themes were determined to be the most salient, based upon a review and analysis of Chinese academic literature on food safety governance (Yang, Horstman, and Penders 2020a).…”

“…In China, the notions of affluence and modernity drove surges in milk consumption, and the state backed dairy marketing campaigns in effort to literally grow the nation by nourishing children. However, industrialization of milk production in China, has contributed to several milk and infant formula safety scandals over the last few years, including, for instance, the 2003 big-headed baby scandal, the 2004 fake milk scandal, the 2008 melamine scandal, and the 2017 precocious puberty scandal (Yang, Horstman, and Penders 2020a;Wang, Steckler, and Hoffman 2020). Of these, the 2008 melamine scandal was the most high-profile and raised global concerns.…”

“…The Chinese academic debate around food safety exhibits a trend toward co-governance and stakeholder participation in the infant formula safety regulation and accountability. These movements emphasize participation and consultative dialogue between decision-makers and interest parties and invite public debate, interaction, and inclusiveness (Yang, Horstman, and Penders 2020a). Additionally, Lai (2013) and Zhang and Han (2018) point out that the Chinese food safety governance system should not only emphasize the construction of administrative and social accountability systems but also integrate the processoriented accountability approach to favor a stringent regulation and accountability system, information transparency and the scientific risk assessment.…”