LIFE / FOOD
A healthy bite
New center looks to tackle China's food safety issues
Published: Aug 06, 2015 08:13 PM Updated: Aug 07, 2015 09:47 AM

Photo: IC


Popular Chinese culinary documentary series A Bite of China has increased many food-lovers' enthusiasm for the dishes and snacks featured on the show. Now, the show's production studio, CCTV's Newsreel and Documentary Film Studio, plans to establish the Flourishing Center in Changchun, Jilin Province, a center that will gather all the Chinese delicacies featured during the two seasons of the highly watched documentary series.

According to a press conference in Changchun on Wednesday, China's Newsreel and Documentary Film Studio will cooperate with local Changchun real estate company Liwang to be the first to move food from the screen to tables. Yu Jingdi, general manager of the new joint venture, said at the press conference: "People's love and enthusiasm for yummy food are behind the enormous popularity of A Bite of China. The upcoming center will establish a bridge between the food documentary and real food with safe and healthy ingredients."

The center will also aim to establish a new system to tackle food safety issues.

Yang Xiaoqing, director of the last episode of the first season of A Bite of China, shared her opinions on food safety in China at the press conference.

She explained that she found the rice grown using Guizhou's traditional pesticide-free farming methods both sweet and delicious, even though it was just plain rice prepared in the simplest of ways.

"As long as ingredients are fresh and safe, even the simplest cooking methods can create delicacies," she said.

Under increasing pressure from rising rental prices and labor costs, many of China's small restaurants have had to cut costs when it comes to using quality ingredients and cooking oil, which has caused huge concern about food safety in China.

Zhang Quanling, a CCTV reporter and host of the press conference, said that if this new system works, food safety will no longer be a concern as food will be shipped from farms directly to people's tables.

Shi Jian, deputy chief editor of the Central Newsreel and Documentary Film Studio, also unveiled the studio's ambitious sequel project A Bite of an Empire, which will focus on the world's three largest cuisines, Western food, Halal food and Asian cuisine, to include Japanese and Korean dishes.