With a growing number of revelations about unsafe food in the market, self-discipline in the food industry has proved to be unreliable. The food and drug administration of Harbin, capital of Heilongjiang province, has introduced a four-tier credibility monitoring system to counter major safety concerns in 2014.

The system ranks food enterprises into different classifications of A, B, or C after rigorously examining their business conditions. Enterprises which have been suspended for non rectification or which have had their licenses revoked, or which misled consumers with illegal advertising, will be included in blacklists.

To date, the ranking list of catering businesses has included 160, 3,122 and 6,018 enterprises in classifications of A, B and C respectively.

Based on information from this credibility system, lists of enterprises in different rankings have been posted in public squares to help people determine where they want to eat.

The food and drug safety watchdogs of Harbin have been fighting with illegal dealers to prevent substandard or unsafe food products from entering the market for many years.

Apart from the credibility monitoring system introduced, specific inspection and rectification, as well as special campaigns, have been worked out to ensure food safety.

The food and drug administration of Harbin has granted a Catering Service License to over 10,000 catering companies, cracked down 70 cases involving food safety violations in drugs and medical equipment and organized more than 200 companies to popularize food and drug safety knowledge for the public.

Meanwhile, the city of Harbin has launched many “Civilized table, green consumption” campaigns to enhance social civilization, promote green consumption concepts, and develop and expand the Chinese tradition of saving and being thrifty.