People shop at a grocery market in Ningbo, East China's Zhejiang province. [Photo/WeChat account: nbfb0574]

Ningbo in East China's Zhejiang province was honored as a national food safety demonstration city by the State Council on Nov 7, according to local media reports.

The title is a recognition of the city's strong supervisions of food safety.

In 2021, the satisfaction rate among residents towards food safety in Ningbo was 86.16 percent, 16.16 percentage points higher than the target set by the local government for the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20) period.

Ningbo is among the first cities in Zhejiang to urge Party and government officials to become responsible for food safety in their respective jurisdictions. A detailed list of work requirements and tasks has been formulated for them.

Last June, the city took a leading role in the province in including edible agricultural products in the Zhejiang Food Chain, a food safety traceability system. As of the end of last year, more than 500 agricultural products including pork, beef, vegetables and aquatic products in Ningbo were covered by the system.

Ningbo has also established a food safety liability insurance operation and service center to improve food safety risk prevention and control. The facility, launched in 2015, is the nation's first private non-enterprise organization.

The total value of food safety liability premiums in Ningbo currently amounts to 136 million yuan ($18.73 million), with the insured amount reaching 57.9 billion yuan, ranking highly in both Zhejiang and China.

Concerted efforts have been made by the local government to strengthen food safety supervision in places such as canteens at old-age service institutions, school canteens, and rural banquets.

Since 2019, Ningbo has invested nearly 1 billion yuan in the transformation and upgrading of local grocery markets. The city has also constructed 23,000 online "sunshine canteens" and built 629 certified canteens for rural banquets.