The honeybee research institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (hereinafter referred to as the “Bee Instituteâ€) began the simulation operation and demonstration of the bee product traceability monitoring technology research project. The quality and safety of bee products in China are expected to be significantly improved. This move can provide important technical support for China's bee product quality and safety supervision and application of the Globally Uniform Mark System (GS1 system).
According to Zhao Jing, director of the research and evaluation department of quality and safety of bees and bee products, for a long time, the main problem of the quality and safety of honey products in China is the use of adulteration and drug residues. This problem has not been fundamentally solved. China's honey industry, especially the production and purchase of raw material honey, has loose management, small scale, poor organization, and difficulty in supervision. Effective supervision requires a reliable technical means. In the process of finding reliable technical means for effective supervision, Zhao Jing attended a meeting of the International Bee Federation and learned that the Argentinean Bee Association has used the International Association for the Coding of Goods of the Year (IDA)'s globally uniform labeling system to conduct quality and safety traceability of bee products. And the application of coding software they developed in the United States, Mexico, and South America. Obviously, Argentina, which ranks second in the world in terms of output of bee products, is the world’s No. 1 in terms of output value, and has a close relationship with the use of a globally uniform labeling system to track product quality and safety. The Apiculture Association of Argentina hopes that our country will use their coding software. Its promotion adopts a purely commercial model. Some countries use their software and they must also invest a certain amount of financial subsidies. The localization of Argentine software needs to be redeveloped.
The output of bee products in China has always ranked first in the world, and the quality and safety traceability system for bee products in China should be developed, but this requires certain support. In 2008, the bees were supported by the National Science and Technology Department’s public welfare industry scientific research “Research and demonstration of anti-reverse production technology systems in different bee production areas†project and the National Special Fund for modern agricultural industrial technology system (bees) project, and the information institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. The R&D team was formed and the research on bee product quality traceability technology system was started. The research results also set up demonstration sites in 8 locations in Chengdu, Beijing, Zhejiang, Hubei, Henan, Jiangsu, Anhui, and Yunnan.
The coding and marking technology is one of the key technologies in this research. Different industries in China have different coding systems. Determining which coding system to use is an important issue in the quality and safety traceability system of bee products. During the project investigation, the bees discovered that the China Article Numbering Center, which represents China’s accession to the International Codex Association, introduced the global unified signage system to China as early as 1991, and began to promote the food safety traceability from the globally uniform labeling system in 2003. Dozens of application pilots for fruits, vegetables, food and tea have been established, application guidelines have been published, and relevant national standards have been formulated. It is undoubtedly more practical to use the coding system of the International Association of Article Numbering Systems to develop the quality and safety traceability system for bee products in China. The global unified labeling system introduced by the China Article Numbering Center has been researched and applied in the traceability system of bee products. It adopts barcodes for identification and information carriers. It can identify and transmit beacon codes, product batch numbers, types of honey, and production dates. . The study also followed the relevant standards set by the China Article Numbering Center while adopting a globally uniform labeling system.
Zhao Jing said that with the improvement of bee product quality safety traceability system research and promotion, the technical level of China's bee product quality and safety supervision will certainly reach a new level.