Picture: Washington Post Chinawatch
Illegal additives, poor hygiene and unsafe materials in the manufacturing process were the major concerns of the public in 2012, while private and multinational companies were the major sources of the worry, a new report says.
The report on Chinese public opinion and crisis management studied 1,593 of the 5,000 major "public opinion events" last year in an effort to find the characteristics and trends of the events, government agencies' response to them, and public feedback.
The report -- produced by the Public Opinion Research Laboratory and Crisis Management Center of Shanghai Jiao Tong University -- recorded 113 large public opinion events related to food safety.
That number was up 74 percent from 2011.
"The country has been facing various crises of public opinion. At the same time, the emergence of new-media tools has been pushing public opinion more frequently than before, especially those concerning food safety, education and healthcare," said Xie Yungeng, an expert on public opinion and new media at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
Full Story: Food Safety Tops Public's Concerns
Source:Washington Post Chinawatch