"The group discussion and planning for working out national nutrition ordinance put forward by the National Institute of Nutrition and Food Safety are under way. It is estimated that the draft ordinance with reference data will be handed over to the Ministry of Health in May this year. By the end of this year, the ministry will submit the related documents to the State Council for final award. The ordinance will become an important reference frame for making "China Nutrition Improvement Law'', said Zhai Fengying, secretary general of the China Nutrition Society and deputy director with the National Institute of Nutrition and Food Safety affiliated with the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention in a recent interview with a People's Daily reporter.

For a long period of time, China has paid more "attention to clinical diagnosis than disease prevention''. "Now it is the best time for China to prevent nutrition-related diseases. If without paying enough attention to the prevention in 10 or 20 years there will be a large amount of chronic diseases, which will have a strong impact on the development of national economy. That is not just to scare people'', said Zhai Fengying.

Practice from home and abroad shows it is a critical time for the fast changes of residents' diet and nutrition structure during the period when the average per capita GDP increases to 3,000 US dollars from 1,000. In 2003, the average per-capita GDP of China exceeded 1,000 US dollars. It is high time to have nutrition meddled.

The motion to have nutrition legislation was suggested in early 1980s, which has not aroused concerns from the relevant departments. Just before the opening of the two Conferences (i.e. the National People's Congress and the Chinese Political Consultative Conference) in 2004, 46 well-known experts and scholars wrote a joint little to Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, appealing to have nutrition legislation for improving national standard of living. In the end Premier Wen Jiabao agreed to this and ordered the Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council to make research on this matter. The Ministry of Health held a seminar on "China Nutrition Improvement Law'' legislative work on March 23 2004, in which officials from the Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council attended. The feasible legislation has come into consideration.

By People's Daily Online