POLICY AND PRACTICE REVIEWS article
Front. Nutr.
Sec. Food Policy and Economics
Governance of Food Safety in China's Pre-Made Dishes Industry: Legal Reforms, Policy Strategies, and International Perspectives
Provisionally accepted
- 1People's Public Security University of China - Muxidi Campus, Beijing, China
- 2Beijing Technology and Business University, Beijing, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
The rapid growth of the pre-made dishes (PMD) industry in China has created new 6 opportunities for rural revitalization and food industry modernization. However, food 7 safety concerns remain a critical challenge, manifested in the absence of a unified 8 standard system, incomplete certification mechanisms, flaws in traceability, and 9 weaknesses in regulatory enforcement. This study conducts an empirical investigation of 10 China's central and local legal documents, complemented by case analysis of recent food 11 safety incidents, to identify the systemic gaps in governance of PMDs. Drawing on 12 macro-, meso-, and micro-level perspectives, we propose a governance framework that 13 integrates compulsory and voluntary standards, multi-stakeholder participation, and 14 digital traceability platforms. Comparative insights from the European Union and the 15 United States further highlight how China's regulatory innovations may contribute to 16 the global discourse on ready-to-eat food safety. The findings suggest that legal and 17 regulatory reform, supported by technology-driven solutions, is essential for ensuring 18 consumer trust and sustainable industry development.
Keywords: Pre-made dishes, Food Safety, governance, Certification, traceability, China, comparative policy
Received: 09 Sep 2025; Accepted: 17 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 TANG, YANG and Li. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Zilong Li, zilong@btbu.edu.cn
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.