China: moon cake producers must have QS mark

Beijing / CN. (gov / xinhua / sd) Moon cakes are sweet pastries with a bean base and an acquired taste for many in the West. They are a traditional treat for Chinese around the Mid-Autumn or Moon cake Festival, which falls on September 25 this year. Moon cake or Mid-Autumn Festival is also the time to be astonished about enormous quantities of cake pieces, producers, consumers and waste, waste, waste. This year for the first time raw materials and quality safety also are topics, discussed in the official media.

Shanghai Daily reports that some brands like Jade Buddha Temple moon cakes cost 50 percent more than they did last year, a survey by the Shanghai Commission of Consumers´ Rights and Interests Protection revealed. The consumer watchdog reminded Chinese moon cake companies not to increase prices. Face to face with more or less expensive raw materials we do not know whether they would do what the watchdog wants.

With the Mid-Autumn Festival just around the corner, China´s quality watchdog has taken steps to regulate the moon cake industry. Buffeted by food health scares at home and abroad, the government announces that more than 700 moon cake producers now have met the new «Quality Safety» requirements.

Their products will carry a «QS» mark as a symbol of their quality. Moon cake manufacturers, who participate in the system, will also print ID numbers on the packaging. Customers can call or send text messages to verify that their cakes meet quality standards, Xinhua says.

«Before the end of this year, all food processing businesses will be required to meet production requirements, or else they will be forbidden to operate. Their products will be banned from the market», China´s government website cites Pu Changcheng, Deputy Director AQSIQ.

Mid-Autumn 2006, the mooncake market saw 14 billion CNY (around 1,35 billion Euro) in sales revenue. And it is estimated that this year´s sales will rise 20 percent from last year. This is the first year China´s sweets industry has used the quality system to better guarantee food safety. Many companies have invested considerable sums of money to upgrade their production lines to meet the «QS» standards.