Rat meat sold as lamb, toxic chicken feet, used cooking oil that was dumped in drains and then resold for cooking, milk powder with melamine, and meat, fruits and vegetables loaded with disease, toxins, banned dyes and preservatives are only a few of the food safety hazards that China’s Supreme People’s Court is battling, reported The New York Times on May 3, 2013. On Friday, China’s highest court released guidelines for a stronger punishment of food safety violations.
According to the a court statement issued by China’s state-run media, problems like taking “ditch” cooking oil that has been used and dumped in drains and then processed to be resold for cooking “seriously affect social harmony and stability, and seriously harm the image of the party and government.”
When it comes to food safety, China’s “social harmony and stability” is endangered.
In addition to reused cooking oil, rat meat is being sold as lamb and other kinds of meat. On Thursday, the Ministry of Public Security announced that it had busted a rat-meat ring in eastern China that had sold rat as mutton in Shanghai and adjacent Jiangsu Province for a value of $1.6 million.
The report of the successful arrest of 63 people involved in the rat-meat ring does very little to comfort the Chinese population when it comes to food since it is only one case in a series of food violations that have plagued China over the course of several years, but especially during the recent months.
The rat, fox, and mink meat that was sold as mutton was “doused in gelatin, red pigment and nitrates.”
Toxic chicken feet were discovered in the Guizhou Province in southwest China and six people were arrested. The chicken feet had been marinated in a hydrogen peroxide solution and adulterated with illegal additives.
Fake beef jerky and other unprocessed frozen meat swarming with bacteria were found at a company in Inner Mongolia. The 23 tons of fake beef jerky and other meat had been disguised by chemicals.
A lamb carcass heavily laced with pesticide caused the death of one person and the police in Shaanxi Province in northwest China arrested one person.
Unfortunately, meat is not the only type of food that is endangering China’s “social harmony and stability.”
Milk powder that was mixed with the chemical melamine caused tens of thousands of children to be at risk for kidney stones and other organ damage. Six infants died.
Fruits and vegetables that are overloaded with disease, toxins, banned dyes, and preservatives show similar side effects, especially on China’s young population.
China’s prime minister since March, Li Keqiang, is hearing his people’s discontent about food safety and is saying that the government will tackle the issue. However, because of “inadequate resources, buck-passing and muddle among rival agencies, and protectionism by local officials,” the task of enforcing food safety appears to be insurmountable.
According to Professor Mao, who studied food and pharmaceutical safety regulation, “Chinese food production has become larger scale and more technological, but the problems emerging also involve using more sophisticated technology to beat regulators and cheat consumers. The government’s efforts need to catch up with the scale and complexity of the problems.”