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Good news is coming for hotpot lovers: a future national standard for hotpot stock will help maintain food safety and allow home cooks to select the level of spices that fits their tastes.

Chongqing-based National Quality Supervision and Test Center for Flavorings consulted 40 experts from stock manufacturers, associations and research centers of the hotpot sector across China to frame out the standard. It is expecting approval from the Standard Administration of China before 2010, said one of the drafters yesterday.

The standard will not apply to restaurants serving hotpot but only to hotpot stocks sold in the market, the drafter said.

Consumer confidence was wrecked by scandals in previous years when many stock suppliers added "Sudan Red," a coloring ingredient that makes spicy hotpot stock looks appealing. Others added paraffin wax, another poisonous additive that fakes a butter-like taste.

"Additives, heavy metals and the quality of oil will be regulated, both for the soup base and for the spices, to uphold food safety," said Wang Yujing, general manager of Chongqing Zhoujunji Hotpot Food Co Ltd, one of the 40 drafters.

Requirements on quality of stock ingredients will be tightened when the national standards becomes effective, according to Wang.

About 80 firms manufacture hotpot stock in the city.

"In addition, consumers can select bases of hotpot soup labeled with light, mild, spicy or hot that suit their tastes, as the nationally unitary standard will define levels of spicy," Wang said.

In the past, levels of spices were not uniform. Mild spicy stocks manufactured in the South, for example, sometimes seem super hot for Northerners.

According to Wang, more than half of the 40 advisors were stock manufacturers delegates from Chongqing Municipality and Sichuan province, which represent spicy hotpot. Others were from Inner Mongolia autonomous region and other North provinces, which represent light hotpot stock, featuring instant boiling of thin cuts of lamb and beef.

Questions:

1. What two additives did stock suppliers add to hotpot in previous years?

2. What levels of spiciness can consumers choose for hotpot soup bases, according to Wang?

3. What areas serve light hotpot stock, featuring instant boiling of thin cuts of lamb and beef?

Answers:

1. “Sudan Red” and paraffin wax.

2. Light, mild, spicy or hot.

3. Inner Mongolia autonomous region and other North provinces.

（英語點津 許雅寧編輯）

About the broadcaster:

Nancy Matos is a foreign expert at China Daily Website. Born and raised in Vancouver, Canada, Nancy is a graduate of the Broadcast Journalism and Media program at the British Columbia Institute of Technology. Her journalism career in broadcast and print has taken her around the world from New York to Portugal and now Beijing. Nancy is happy to make the move to China and join the China Daily team.