AUTHOR=Teng Minjie , Wei Hua , Tao Qunshan 

TITLE=Dynamic relationship among China's economic development, food safety and health production from a global perspective

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems

VOLUME=Volume 9 - 2025

YEAR=2025

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/sustainable-food-systems/articles/10.3389/fsufs.2025.1629967

DOI=10.3389/fsufs.2025.1629967

ISSN=2571-581X

ABSTRACT=IntroductionIn this study, we constructed a Dynamic Network SBM (DNSBM) model. Such a model is essential to gain deeper insights into the complex interplay among economic development, food safety, and health production.MethodsUsing panel data from 30 provinces in China (2017–2020), we integrated economic development, food safety, and health production into a unified efficiency assessment framework.ResultsOur findings reveal that China's overall efficiency is low (0.504), with significant regional heterogeneity, presenting a pattern of high in the east and low in the west; the efficiency of economic development (0.288) significantly lags behind the efficiency of health production (0.694); and the efficiency of food safety risk control is weak (the efficiency of food inspection failure rate, the number of foodborne illness incidents and patients are 0.694, 0.368, and 0.428, respectively).DiscussionThe DNSBM model breaks through the limitations of traditional static analysis and provides a dynamic assessment tool for emerging economies to reconcile the contradiction of “economic growth resource consumption public health”. China's experience highlights the central role of government-led multi-sectoral collaboration, technological innovation, and balanced regional development. The study calls for integrating food safety governance into the global agenda and building a global food safety network through enhanced international cooperation (e.g., drawing on European Union standards, sharing of agricultural regulatory and digital testing technologies) to promote synergistic and sustainable development of the economy, health, and the environment, and contribute to the realization of the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).