China’s implementation of food safety standards is the country’s biggest hindrance in exporting high quality, trusted food products overseas, an official with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Wednesday.

The Chinese government has made great strides in addressing food safety issues after a series of problems including a tainted milk powder scandal in 2008, FDA Deputy Commissioner for Foods Michael Taylor told reporters in Shanghai.

“It is a challenge to implement because we have to develop the expertise, the training of the inspectors and common approaches to inspection,” Taylor said.

China set up a national food safety commission in February, headed by Vice Premier Li Keqiang, after tainted milk powder in 2008 sickened thousands of babies and destroyed the credibility of the country’s dairy industry.

Food products from China, including dairy and seafood, are categorized with import alert systems on entry to the United States to ensure that products meet safety requirements. Taylor said it was hard to say the percentage of products that did not meet U.S. safety standards, but reiterated that Chinese officials were investing heavily to improve their regulatory system.

“An important development is the new food safety law that was passed here in 2009 with a very high-level food safety committee. It just shows a forthright approach to making food safety an important priority, to creating more transparency in the food safety system,” he said.

Globally, the “made in China” brand continues to be under close scrutiny due to the persistence of food and product safety breaches that have alarmed consumers and sparked criminal cases leading, in some cases, to executions.

“The brand is in the eye of the beholder. The Chinese government is making serious efforts and moving in the right direction, so I think ultimately consumers will make that decision, but we are optimistic about the future of our partnership with China,” Taylor said.

###

(Reporting by Farah Master; Editing by Ben Blanchard)