There is mounting concern about food safety at the national and regional levels countrywide in China. In the past few years, inadequate capacities in determination of contaminations in foods were a major obstacle in the development of all strategies related to food safety. In order to provide safe, high-quality foods that meet the consumer？？s demands, improve the development of our food safety system, and strength the capacities in determination of contaminations in foods especially China joining the WTO, a project about the detection of residua in foods, financially supported 1.60 million RMB by the Ministry of Science and Technology, P.R.C was conducted between 2001 and 2002. Heavy metal, pesticide residues, veterinary drug residues, foodborne pathogens, biotoxins and so on were included in this project. Details are as follows.

(1) Development and validation of rapid methods for the determination of Multi-residues in foods;

(2) Development of modern biotechnological methods;

(3) Development of methods for the determination of pathogens antibiotic resistant and establishment of antibiotic resistance patterns and models;

(4) Evaluation of analytical methods for contaminations in foods;

(5) Monitoring and analysis of foodborne contaminations (i.e. mycotoxins, tetrodotoxins and pathogens) antibiotic resistant;

(6) Studies on the detection of foods adulterated with some illegal additives.

More than 30 analytical methods (ELISA, GC-MS, HPLC and so forth) for the determination of contaminations in foods as well as foods adulterated with some illegal additives were established. Three foodborne pathogen antibiotic resistance patterns and models were established in our country. On the other hand, the detection of tetrodotoxin and the screening of edible puffer fish provide the scientific data for the availability of puffer fish. Twenty-two analytical methods were put forward to the national food hygiene standard association and three of them have been issued as the national standard so far. Fifteen papers related to this project have been published.

Significance of the project:

Some of methods for detection of the residua mentioned above weren't publicly reported so far. All methods obtained in this project will improve the analytical capacities and their application in foodborne contaminants surveillance in China, Some of them have been issued by the Ministry of Health as the national standards and regulations. This project has improved the technological indexes and parameters in food contaminant surveillance. The rights of all analytical methods developed have reserved in China. The results obtained in this study will provide an effective platform for reducing the foodborne diseases and make the food safer in China. Besides, most of the analytical methods have been applied in food safety control and inspection and created a significant effect to the development of economy and science in China.