Development of a food safety information database for Greater China

Abstract

Food safety in China has become a major research interest and popular social issue in recent years. We have constructed a database-website-advanced search engine system for continuous collection online food safety information and efficient mass literature analysis. This paper will introduce the methods used for data extraction, processing, search and intelligent result analyses. Over 1,300,000 pieces of entry have been collected, including the information from the websites of government agencies, the abstracts of academic papers and news in credible online media. This system can catalog the search results automatically in terms of geographic region, time period, original sources and food-related keywords. An application is shown through comparing the differences between food-borne disease data in governmental documents and media reports. The number of food poisoning incidents reported by the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) decreased gradually from 2006 to 2012 whereas the number of food poisoning news items increased simultaneously with the food safety news. The media prefer to report the food safety incidents caused by man-made hazards or those which occur in the public domain.