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PRINTIt's the law of the jungle in the food safety industry – with hidden poisons now including new growth hormones
(Beijing) – There’s no denying that the gastronomic horizons of Chinese cuisines sometimes verge on the infinite. But on factors of food quality, there’s little subtlety or nuance over the level of safety standards.
In the past five years, the number of public food and drug safety scandals has hit new highs. In 2008, there was the tainted milk scandal. Then, this year’s poisoned medicine capsule case and contaminated cooking oil scandal signaled that there continue to be severe barriers to the adequate protection of public health.
With scandals now regularly uncovered in nearly every sector of food production, the industry as a whole appears to be under siege. Not long ago, a company in Foshan, Guangdong Province, was exposed by local media outlets of adding cancer-causing salt to food products. Across the country, the practice of spraying cabbage with formaldehyde remains a top concern. On pig farms, the use of the toxic additive clenbuterol in feed has also raised alarms.
Caixin has found that these publicized food safety scandals represent only a fraction of unsafe food production practices. Hundreds of chemical food additives are pumped into products that Chinese people consume every day.
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