Why food safety incidents are endless

The incident of illegal use of expired meat raw materials by Shanghai Fuxi Foods Co., Ltd. once again stirred up the fragile nerves of the people. People complained: This time, even the “foreign suppliers” who have been known for their high standards are not spared. Who can trust?

Food safety incidents occur repeatedly

On July 20, the Dragon TV night news revealed that Shanghai Fuxi Food Co., Ltd. has a lot of use of expired metamorphic meat raw materials. In the incident, McDonald's and KFC suffered the most and caused some of the meals in some restaurants to be out of stock. McDonald's and KFC had to change their suppliers and “severed” all business dealings with Shanghai Fuxi and Fuxi Group. .

Although the Fuk Hei Group held a press conference, apart from announcing the recall of problem products and the formation of a new management team, it did not explain how the incident occurred and how it would be compensated in the future. Even today, the Fuxi incident is still under investigation. At present, six Fuxi executives have been detained.

Prior to the “Fuxi incident,” the relatively large food safety incidents included fruit juice companies “incarnating fruit” incidents, “rapid chicken incidents” and “melamine incidents”.

In September 2013, Huiyuan, Andeli and Haisheng juice production companies were reported to use fruit buying and selling centers or fruit lines as middlemen to purchase large quantities of “fruit” from fruit farmers and make fruit juices or fruit juice concentrates. Huiyuan only issued a statement saying that the company "has insisted on five passes after the acquisition of fruit," and did not have more investigation results and quality inspection reports.

In CCTV’s unannounced visit to CCTV in 2012, some farmers had illegally used anti-viral drugs such as amantadine in order to enable broilers to grow rapidly. At the same time, hormone drugs such as dexamethasone have also become “secret weapons” that promote the growth of broilers. These illegally used drugs in the Chinese Veterinary Drugs Regulations allow white chickens to grow 5 pounds in 40 days. After the farmers handed the "rapid chickens" to the slaughterhouse, the slaughter company's test staff compiles the breeding records and supplies KFC, McDonald's and other fast food companies. This matter has aroused the attention of the Ministry of Agriculture. The Ministry of Agriculture immediately ordered the relevant departments in Shandong Province to investigate and deal with the matter quickly and sent an expert team to Shandong for investigation.

Law enforcement and punishment concerns

Because of the existence of individual "law enforcement is not strict," regulatory loopholes have become one of the public criticism.

“I have opened a cake shop and I have a deep understanding. It may be based on our laws and regulations that it basically picks out flaws, but it is indeed loopholes in implementation. There are some law enforcers who just walk through the court if you give him him. What you want can be passed in the past.” An individual bakery shop owner who did not want to disclose information told the China Economic Times reporter.

“The most important issue is that the organizational structure and configuration of the regulatory authorities cannot match the requirements of the food safety industry chain.” Zhu Danpeng, a researcher at the China Food Business Research Institute, spoke bluntly to the China Economic Times reporter.

“The current lack of core values ​​has also led some companies to fail to keep their bottom line under the stimulation of growth and expansion, so that producers and operators have the idea of ​​'making quick money', and regulatory loopholes will encourage such ideas. Enterprises are ignoring laws and regulations, and large companies also have a chance of being fortunate.” Zhu Danpeng said, while consumers lack relevant guidance and education, and their understanding of food safety is not comprehensive. The lack of knowledge in this area also makes consumers unable to do better. To supervise food production enterprises.

Chen Junshi, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a researcher at the Nutrition and Food Safety Institute of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, also stated that standards are not omnipotent. We are not at present having problems with food safety standards, but rather that the problems of not implementing existing standards are prominent, that is, due to the production enterprises. Failure to comply with standards and even illegal additions have led to security risks or counterfeit foods.

"Another important factor is that China's current laws and regulations impose less severe penalties for violations of laws and regulations, and food manufacturing companies have a low price to violate laws and regulations, which is not enough to play a deterrent role," said Zhu Dan Peng.

According to the “National Food Safety Law” promulgated in 2009, the penalties for illegal acts in food production and business activities can be classified according to the seriousness of the circumstances: ordering rectification, warning, confiscation of illegal income, illegal production and management related items, fines, and production suspension. If the business is suspended or the permit is revoked, the person in charge of the unit whose license has been revoked is prohibited from engaging in relevant management work within five years, bear civil liability for compensation, and pursue criminal liability.

However, in actual operation, there are cases where investigation and evidence collection are difficult, regulations are not specific and detailed, and the degree of punishment is not sufficient. “The per capita food safety regulatory resources in China are very low. Although the sector may seem to be numerous, the amount is still far from enough, resulting in a large amount of regulatory work. It is extremely difficult. Regulation involves all aspects of food production. In addition to field visits and supervision, there are a lot of other work, such as standard setting, legal construction, etc.” Luo Yunbo, Dean of the College of Food Science and Nutritional Engineering at China Agricultural University, once said.

Taking foreign fast food as an example, according to media statistics, a total of 17 food safety incidents were discovered in 5 years, and most of them took self-examination and apologized. Only three fines were imposed, and the restaurant involved was seriously dealt with twice.

Take Ajisen Ramen as an example. In 2011, Ajisen Ramen was found to have had a soup bottom blending incident and an illegal use of additives. They were fined 200,000 yuan and 776,600 yuan respectively. At that time, the daily profit of Ajisen Ramen could reach 1.15 million yuan. The penalty is a one-of-a-kind amount for Ajisen Ramen, because according to Chinese laws, the maximum amount of fines is "the value of the goods is five times or more and ten times or less."

In foreign countries, companies that violate the rules in the food supply chain often impose heavy penalties. The United States imposes heavy penalties and punitive damages on companies violating food safety laws and regulations. The factory in question may shut down production and related products will be banned. It will also receive a high-price ticket that allows companies to lose money and go bankrupt.

The same is true in Germany. At the end of 2010, chicken farms in North Rhine-Westphalia in western Germany discovered that feed was contaminated with carcinogen dioxin. For the perpetrators of the dioxin incident, the German prosecution department instituted criminal proceedings, while the damaged farms proposed civil compensation, amounting to as much as 40 million to 60 million euros per week, and it is entirely possible for the perpetrators to go bankrupt.

In Paris, France, if supermarket stores have expired food that exceeds the shelf life on the label, the supermarket must be closed once it is discovered by the inspection department.

According to the British Food Safety Law, general violations will be punished with a fine of £ 5,000 or imprisonment within 3 months depending on the circumstances. If the sale of foods that do not meet the quality standards or the provision of foods causes damage to the health of the people, fines of up to 20,000 pounds or 6 months imprisonment will be imposed. If the circumstances and consequences are very serious, the authorities may impose maximum fines or imprisonment of up to two years on the highest levels of offenders.

"Although food safety can not be relied on to punish, but from the experience of other countries, the effect of increasing penalties is indeed very clear. If the cost of violations and violations is too low, laws and regulations will be difficult to play an effective role." Zhu Dan Peng said.