Safe enough to eat?
In a country where the food really can't be guaranteed to be free of chemicals or even toxins, and where apples and grapes are most certainly peeled before consumption, how do I know what is safe to eat? Maybe I should stick to plain white rice. Oh no, even no guarantees that your brand new rice isn't actually 17 years old. (http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/PEK84420.htm )
Probably the best way forward is to avoid eating too much of any one thing.
A nebulous and inefficient safety management system overseen by multiple government departments is to blame for the mainland's regular scares relating to foodstuffs and other consumer goods, according to leading food safety experts.
Li Jianrong , a food science professor from Gongshang University in Zhejiang , said the "multi-monitoring" scheme was one of the key factors behind the many food scandals in recent years and "governments should streamline their co-ordination and improve their working efficiency".
Food and other consumer goods scares are a staple of mainland news. During the past few months, consumers have been rattled to learn of carcinogenic Sudan Red dye detected in salted duck eggs from Hebei , and high levels of carcinogens in turbot fish in Shanghai. The Sudan scandal widened yesterday when authorities announced seven more companies were found making contaminated eggs in Beijing and Hebei, Anhui , Henan , Zhejiang and Hubei .
In September, Japanese cosmetics manufacturer SK-II got into trouble with safety inspectors in Guangdong, although it was later clarified that its products were safe.
Professor Li said the safety of agricultural products and livestock was monitored by five government bodies. Provincial agriculture departments had responsibility over farm operations, quality inspection departments governed processing and packaging, industry and commerce departments monitored the market, and public health departments dealt with the food as it was consumed.
Meanwhile, the State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) and its local branches were entitled to co-ordinate with other departments and monitor the whole process.
"But the SFDA seems to lack the power to motivate other government departments. The SFDA is young and was only established in the late 1990s. And it doesn't have its own key labs," he said.
Pan Jiarong , from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, agreed, saying the existing government management system was not efficient enough to supervise the mainland's complex and chaotic food market. "In many cases those government bodies are duplicated, but sometimes there are procedures which fall through the monitoring gaps."
In a renewed effort to bring order to the system, the Ministry of Commerce has drafted rules for the distribution of food products and put the proposal out for public comment until Saturday.
Wholesalers and retail food markets would be required to sign agreements with vendors defining their food quality responsibilities, and markets would be encouraged to fix links with food suppliers.
But experts said scares perpetuated by rogue manufacturers in the past couple of years did not point to a decline in mainland quality.
Professor Pan said: "From the high media exposure, maybe it is easy to conclude that the food on the market is of poorer quality. But I don't think so and I think the problematic foods about five or 10 years ago would have been about the same proportion or even greater."
China Agriculture University professor Shen Jianzhong said people were now not only concerned about the quantity of food, but also its quality. A more active media industry was an additional factor. "The media is become more transparent than before and quickly publish reports about those problems."
Fujian officials find eggs with cancer-causing dyeA duck egg scare in Hubei province has spread south to Fujian province, with Fujian authorities discovering 6,000 chicken eggs contaminated with the carcinogenic Sudan dye.
The eggs found in Fuzhou, Fujian's capital, came from the same Hubei company that produced the tainted duck eggs.
Hong Kong's Centre for Food Safety said Sunday it has yet to find out if eggs from the company are being sold in the territory.
Fuzhou health officials said they found the tainted chicken eggs to contain a higher amount of the chemical than in duck eggs.
But, instead of the red-colored Sudan 1, the dye used in the chicken eggs was Sudan 4, which is mainly used to color oils, fats, wax and grease.
The use of Sudan 4 dye is banned in food as it could cause cancer if consumed by humans over a long period.
But Fuzhou officials warned it would be difficult to tell if an egg had been dyed with Sudan 4 because a dyed egg yolk would still appear golden yellow. The chicken eggs were found to contain 0.2 milligrams to 0.3mg of Sudan 4 which was a higher dosage than found in duck eggs.
A spokesperson for Hubei company Shendan Healthy Food told TVB Sunday they were not aware of the incident. A Hong Kong egg wholesaler, Yip Tie, said he has been selling boxes of Hubei eggs to local restaurants, but did not import eggs from Shendan Healthy Food. He is worried that the dye scare may affect his business.
Other Hong Kong egg wholesalers said they have been mainly importing cheaper eggs from Shandong and Liaoning provinces in the past few years.
Eggs from the Hubei company have been taken off the shelves in Fuzhou's supermarkets.
Amid the duck egg scare last Thursday, the Guangzhou Industrial and Commercial Administration Bureau ordered a ban on the sale of fresh and salted duck eggs in markets as well as the serving of duck eggs in restaurants.
Hubei authorities have also raided seven farms, killing 5,000 ducks and destroying 300 kilograms of duck eggs.
Beijing bans sales of contaminated fish
BEIJING, Nov. 20 (Xinhua) -- Beijing banned the sale of turbot on Monday after detecting excessive amounts of carcinogens in the fish.
A 12315 hotline has been set up so that citizens can report sales of the contaminated fish, according to the municipal food security office.
Several other cities and provinces -- including Tianjin, Xi'an and Liaoning -- have also started quality inspections of turbot after Shanghai announced Friday it had detected excessive residue including nitrofuran and chloromycetin in 30 samples of turbot. The chemicals are known cancer causing agents.
The finger has been pointed at fish farmers who knowingly feed banned chemicals to the fish.
Fish markets, shopping malls, and hotels in Shanghai have stopped selling turbot following government warnings.
The eastern province of Shandong, a major turbot producing area, has taken measures to monitor turbot farms.
It has also called on local authorities to trace contaminated fish and crank up inspection efforts in the cultivation, transportation, storage and sales of turbot and other fish.
Due to their low resistance to disease, the fish, introduced from Europe in the 1990s, are sometimes fed large quantities of medicinal supplements, which leave harmful, cancer causing residue in their flesh.
The State Food and Drug Administration has ordered local offices and authorities in coastal areas including Shandong, Jiangsu, Hebei, Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong, Liaoning, and Tianjin to closely monitor the case.
China is currently assailed by severe food security problems as suspect food products continue to come to light. Recent cases include parasite-infested snails, steroid-tainted pork and ducks and hens that were fed cancer-causing Sudan dye to make their
yolks red.
November 2006 Chicken eggs in Fujian found to contain Sudan IV, a red dye used in industry.
November In Beijing, red-yolk salted duck eggs found to contain Sudan II, a carcinogenic red dye. Thousands of ducks culled. Hong Kong's Centre for Food Safety says the city does not import the tainted eggs.
July Sudan I red dye found in food in Hunan .
March 2005 Sudan I found in mainland KFC and Heinz products.
February ParknShop removes products containing Sudan I.
February UK blacklists 360 foods made with contaminated chilli powder containing Sudan I, which originated in India.
posted by Kai @ 2:45 PM
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