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Chinese consumers concerned about food safety

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-03-27 15:02

WHAT'S IN A NAME?  

Although the Ministry of Health maintains a list of food  additives on its website, many Chinese consumers, like Wang, complain it's hard to know whether their food contains additives or other harmful substances, as the labels are often "confusing".    

Zhang Jun, who does chemical research at a Beijing-based institution,  said he always pays attention to labels, but most of his friends find it hard to know what the labels mean.    

Some companies, he said, list additives by their chemical equation or scientific name, which puzzle consumers.    

"I often tell my friends that potassium sorbate is an  antiseptic and people should avoid eating it," he said. Potassium sorbate is used to prevent spoilage. "But, the question comes: who can assure us there is no antiseptic in the product if the company did not put it on the label?"    

China adopted a food-labeling regulation in last September,  which requires producers to specify names and amounts of additives in food. Those who violate this regulation face fines of 5,000 yuan to 10,000 yuan.    

"Moreover, there is no effective way for consumers to know which additive is safe and which is toxic," Zhang said    

Zhang also criticized the widespread practice of having film and music celebrities endorse food and medicines in advertising.    

"People are always prone to trust stars and will not doubt their word. But some famous people take advantage of consumers'  trust," he said.  

Qiu Baochang of the Beijing Lawyers' Association told Xinhua:"  The government should call a halt to the practice of celebrity  endorsements of food, to protect the rights of consumers and the  stars' reputations."    

Beijing Consumers Association Secretary-General Zhang Ming  agreed, saying: "These stars actually seldom try the products they endorse."

LOOPHOLES EVERYWHERE

The major problem was the use of banned substances, such as melamine (an industrial chemical used in plastics) and Sudan red (a dye used in oils, waxes, gasoline and shoe polish).

At the Sixth China Food Safety Annual Meeting held last August, China National Food Industry Association Chairman Wang Wenzhe said that the county's food quality had improved greatly in recent years.

But he also acknowledged that food quality was far below consumer expectations, with many cases of excessive pesticide residue and banned food additives.

Ma Yong, a senior official with the National Food Industry Association, told a food-quality seminar in Beijing on March 13 that problems can occur at every step, including production, raw materials, animal feed, planting, slaughtering, processing, transportation, packaging and sales.

There have been many cases of banned and dangerous substances turning up in a wide variety of food. In 2005,Sudan red was found in salted duck eggs in some provinces and cities. It turned out that poultry farmers were giving hens and ducks the chemical to make the yolks of their eggs red, which commands higher prices.

A year later, several fish farms in eastern Shandong Province that were raising turbot, a popular type of flatfish, were fined and ordered to halt sales after traces of carcinogens including malachite green were detected in samples.

Malachite green is an anti-fungal agent for aquarium fish, but it's not supposed to be used for fish intended for human consumption. Packaging can be a particular problem if it doesn't protect the food or contains harmful substances.

"In some developed countries such as the European Union and the United States, producers can face severe punishment if there are problems with the packaging, but China has no strictly enforced packaging requirements," Zhu Tiancheng, a lawyer with Beijing Jindong Law Firm told Xinhua.

Liu Yonghao, the board chairman of farming company New Hope Group, told Beijing Sci-Tech Report earlier this month that food companies should reduce safety risks by better monitoring of the whole production and distribution process, from raw material to sales.

"Although it requires a huge investment to establish an entire monitoring chain, it is good for a company in the long run," he said.

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