CITY authorities have set up two electronic systems to monitor the safety of vegetables being exported to Hong Kong.

The two systems, costing more than 1 million yuan (US$146,413), were installed after the mainland passed the first food safety laws in September.

One is a closed-circuit television network that scrutinizes all vegetable processing companies in Shenzhen. Video cameras record how vegetables arrive at processing plants, how staff test pesticide levels, how they process vegetables and how vehicles take the products to the border.

All footage is monitored by officers of the Shenzhen Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau at the Wenjindu border post.

The other system records each processing company's information, including the quarantine results of their vegetables, certificates approving supply and details of vehicles carrying the products.

It makes sure all monitoring procedures are completed before the vegetables are taken across the border, director of plant inspection and quarantine Wang Jun said.

For example, trucks would be stopped if records showed the vegetables they carried had not passed quarantine or if they were not registered in the system, said Wang.

While the new systems were expected to speed up checks, Wang did not say how many more trucks could be inspected.

Last year the bureau checked about 2,700 trucks at the border, or seven a day - a fraction of the 260 vegetable trucks that cross the border daily.

Wang said no evidence of smuggled cigarettes or chickens had been found and 99 percent of the vegetables had met safety requirements.

Source: Shenzhen Daily