Mao Qun’an, head of the China Health Education Center, said in a meeting on the subject of “scientific oversight of food additives” on June 13, present reports on food additives have misleading elements.

“Some reports present normal food additives as illegal ingredients, and this mistake will mislead the public, creating a poor and untrue image of the food industry and unnecessary panic over food safety.”

Mao added that such inaccurate or wrong information could actually obscure the real food safety problems. “According to monitoring, the most serious offences to public sanitation and health are microbial pollutants, and too many reports on food addictives will misdirect public attention.”

Victimizing Consumers, Growers and Producers as Well

Zhang Yun, a retiree in Haidian District, Beijing, goes grocery shopping for her family of four every morning. But she now feels serious qualms when making her selections.

“After the Japan nuclear crisis, in fear of radiation I didn’t buy leaf vegetables for a long time, and after the ‘lean pork powder’ incident I paid much attention to the source of my meats, and when plasticizer was found in Taiwan-produced food, choosing bottled drinks became a headache,” Zhang said. Though many rumors about “cucumbers with contraceptive ingredients,” “overuse of growth promoter in watermelon,” and “artificially ripened bananas” have since been clarified, she is still haunted by paranoia. She cited a popular joke on the Internet, that food safety problems “have taught the average person a lot about chemistry.”

“What I most hope for is the severe punishment of these criminals; then we ordinary people can feel reassured about eating safely,” said Zhang Yun.

This may not be far from realization. According to the Food Safety Office of Beijing, the city is setting up a food credit administration system, under which if a food manufacturing company breaks the law, their license is revoked, and the people in charge are prohibited from engaging in the food industry for five years.

All relevant officials have to join in to take action, even those who showed no interest before. Their response and participation in promoting food safety will be counted in their job performance assessment.

All over China, measures have been taken to fight against food safety problems. Jilin Province has set up a hotline expecting the citizenry to offer clues to emerging issues, and has sent 1,300 volunteers to local communities to collect information on food safety. In Sichuan Province government departments involved in food supervision, public security and other relevant functions have all set up hotlines. In Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, food safety supervisors have been equipped with the latest testing devices that can detect illegal additives much faster than usual. In Jiangsu and Guangdong provinces and Inner Mongolia and Ningxia Hui autonomous regions, mass campaigns have been organized to widely disseminate food safety knowledge.

Apart from consumers, the farmers are also victims. According to Luo Yunbo, farmers are at the bottom of the food supply chain. They earn the least in the food industry, but their livelihoods are the most significantly affected when a crisis breaks out.

Xue Henglei knows this from personal experience. This hog farmer in Lüzhuang Village, Chongyi Town, Qinyang City in Henan Province, normally handles 1,000 hogs. After clenbuterol-spiked pork was reported, his usual agent didn’t come to buy his pigs, though the animals on his farm were cleared of the chemical. Two months after the scandal, he still couldn’t find buyers for more than 100 of his pigs ready for slaughter.

Though the theory that growth accelerator was the cause of exploding watermelon remains in dispute, local farmers in Danyang of Jiangsu Province faced a dilemma. Most watermelons rotted in the fields and only a small proportion of them was sold – at the very low price of RMB 0.8 per kilo.

When the mainland was reeling from the melamine scandal in 2008, Taiwan food manufacturers seized the opportunity to flaunt the quality of their products with such advertising slogans as “Safe Food Made in Taiwan.” And the notion was successfully sold to mainlanders. But when the plasticizer incident was exposed, within one week, public praise of Taiwan food, based on that 30 years of experience, was destroyed. It will take more than time to rebuild consumer confidence.

Harsh Penalties Key to Solution

The question repeated by media representatives and the public is: why do food safety problems recur? When will the cycle end?

Luo Yunbo explained that the large population in China, its long food supply chain, the huge labor force involved and limited economic development all raise the probability of food safety problems.