Tag Archives: China

Addicted to hotpot; China cracks down on opiates in broth

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China Daily reports tough penalties will be used to end entrenched abuses in the catering industry, such as the use of poppy capsules, a major source of many opiates, and industrial coloring agents, according to the top food administrator.

The State Food and Drug Administration will urge in its 2012 food regulation plan a crack down on the illegal use of additives.

Hotpot broth, beverages and seasonings will be key targets, as they are "danger zones" for food safety incidents triggered by additives.

Although some restaurant chains vouched for their food quality and said they have food safety specialists at every outlet, some hotpot stores still use poppy capsules, which can even lead to addiction, insiders said.

"It’s easy to obtain poppy capsules from familiar sources," said Fan Shengwu, deputy secretary-general of the Henan Provincial Restaurants Association. "Campaigns are only temporary remedies, and law breaking will resume."

The city of Leshan, Sichuan province, launched a campaign in 2008 to crack down on the use of poppy capsules after city authorities found 12 out of 401 restaurants used the substance in hot pots.

Technology and cash – higher rewards for whistleblowers – are good ways to punish law breakers, according to some food safety experts.

"Electronic monitors in restaurant kitchens can provide a panoramic view of the action," said Qiu Baochang, head of the lawyers’ group of the China Consumers’ Association.

Smile: you’re on camera; McDonald’s, Carrefour sorry for food violations in China

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Staff at McDonald’s and Carrefour outlets in China were caught on camera selling expired chicken products and meat that fell on the ground.

The report by China Central Television offered no evidence of widespread problems with the China operations at either company. But their quick apologies highlight the pressures foreign companies can face in China, as well as rising food-safety worries there.

CCTV reported late Thursday that a Beijing branch of McDonald’s sold chicken wings an hour and 24 minutes after they had been left on a warming tray, compared with the 30-minute limit that the store sets. The report also said outlet personnel cooked and sold beef that had fallen on the outlet’s kitchen floor.

China’s Food and Drug Administration said late Friday that it sent health investigators to the McDonald’s outlet featured in CCTV’s report and ordered the company to act in accordance with food-safety laws and to boost employee food-safety awareness. The incident should be a warning to all McDonald’s outlets, it said.

The network also said a Carrefour outlet in the Chinese city of Zhengzhou, in central Henan province, sold expired chicken and labeled regular chicken as more the expensive free-range variety.

CCTV’s report came as part of an annual broadcast feature marking World Consumer-Rights Day on March 15, or what is known in China as "315." Analysts say that China has historically used the day as an educational tool to give Chinese consumers more information on the products they use and as an outlet for their complaints.

Serious about sprouts in China; growers held after safety scare over bean sprouts

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The Shanghai Daily reports growers of tainted bean sprouts in Shanghai’s Qingpu District have been detained, local authorities said yesterday.

??Shanghai Food and Drug Administration said the bean sprouts found in unlicensed premises in thesites/default/files/amy_sprouts_guelph_05(24).jpgXianghuaqiao residential community contained illegal additives.?.

Officials gave no further details of what kind of additives they were and it was not known whether they were toxic or added in excessive amounts. ??All the contaminated bean sprouts have been destroyed and several suspects detained after local authorities acted on a tip-off from a resident.

Chinese billionaire dies after eating poisoned cat stew: police

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Chinese billionaire Long Liyuan died after dining on slow-boiled cat meat stew laced with the toxic herb Gelsemium elegans during a business lunch in the Guangdong province.

The case became an online sensation after the police said they had detained the local official, Huang Guang, who had also been hospitalized with food poisoning after the Dec. 23 lunch, in the city of Yangjiang.

The police now suspect that Mr. Huang slipped Gelsemium elegans into the stew while eating lunch with Long Liyuan, 49, who ran a forestry company, and another friend. To avoid suspicion, Mr. Huang apparently ate some of the stew himself. All three men were hospitalized, according to the police account, and Mr. Long died almost immediately.

The police discovered evidence that Mr. Huang had embezzled money from Mr. Long, and detained him on Dec. 30.

Chinese dairy farmer on death row for food adulteration, killing 3 kids

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A Chinese dairy farmer has been sentenced to death for lacing her rival’s milk supply with industrial salt, causing the deaths of three young children, state media report.

A local court in Pingliang city in far western China’s Gansu province found Ma Xiuling guilty of deliberately adding nitrite to the milk of a dairy farming couple in revenge for some business disputes, the official Xinhua News Agency reported today.

Earlier reports said a month-old baby and two children younger than 2 died. Xinhua said 36 people were hospitalised.

The Gansu Daily newspaper said Ma’s husband, Wu Guangquan, was sentenced to life in prison for purchasing the poison.

Both Ma and her husband have lodged appeals, Xinhua said.

It’s OK; ‘koala meat’ was actually bamboo rat, restaurant claims

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A restaurant in southern China that found itself at the center of outrage for selling "koala meat" claims it was in fact selling a type of rat that bears a resemblance to the drowsy marsupial.

An Australian tourist visiting a restaurant in Guangzhou’s Panyu district told a radio station 3AW that diners were able to select a live koala from a cage and could choose whether they wanted it "braised" or "stewed."

Distressed by the scene, the traveller snapped a photo of what appeared to be the iconic animal, bent forward and facing downward in a cage, with only a carrot given as food.

But the general manager of the restaurant denied that the animal was a koala, the Xinhua news agency reported.

"The Australian tourist was actually the victim of a false alarm, as the restaurant never sells koala," the manager said.

Another manager at the restaurant clarified that the animal was a bamboo rat.

The Chinese bamboo rat is found in southern parts of the country and is commonly sold in food markets.

China: Funny face for excellent food safety in restaurants

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 Not the 1957 Gershwin film starring Audrey Hepburn and Fred Astaire, but more along the lines of what Denmark has been using as a form of restaurant inspection disclosure (left).

Xinhua News Agency reports China’s food safety watchdog plans to use cartoon faces — smiling or unhappy — to grade restaurants and delis based on the evaluation of their food safety conditions.

According to a draft plan compiled by the State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA), the "smiling face" will represent excellent, the "straight face" means good and the "unhappy face" indicates average, according the draft which is currently opening for public opinions.

The grading will be based on evaluations on food safety factors ranging from environment, facilities, food materials, processing, to food additive and tableware disinfection, according to the draft.

Catering businesses scoring 90 and above will be rated as excellent, and between 75 to 90 will be classified as good. Those with scores above 60 but under 75 will be regarded as average.

The food safety authorities will conduct both from-time-to-time checks and evaluations on yearly basis. The draft said catering businesses will be required to placed the cartoon faces on visible positions to inform diners.

The plan has met mixed reactions among the public, with many suspecting if the proposal could be implemented substantially.

Antifreeze-tainted vinegar kills 11 in China, 120 poisoned

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Vinegar contaminated with anti-freeze was suspected of causing the deaths of 11 people who ate an evening feast during the ongoing Ramadan holiday in a Muslim area of China.

Local police told state media that vinegar stored in two plastic barrels that had previously contained anti-freeze was thought to be the cause of mass poisoning after about 150 people ate together on Friday evening in a remote village in Pishan county in the western region of Xinjiang.

Investigations were continuing and toxicity tests had still not confirmed the source of the poisoning, the official Xinhua news agency quoted a police statement as saying.

The statement said about 120 people were poisoned with one person still in critical condition by Monday.
 

Lobster feast sickens over 220 in China

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More than 220 people were hospitalized after eating lobsters in east Jiangxi Province, a local hospital reported on Friday.

Ruichang city residents who unsuspectingly indulged in a Thursday night lobster feast later suffered from diarrhea, vomiting, and some contracted a fever, said Gong Jinwen, a doctor who treated the sick at Renmin Hospital. Doctors speculate that E. coli could be the cause.

More than 4,000 people attended the lobster shindig, which was part of the city’s government-sponsored lobster festival.

Poop from Chinese duck farms linked to 100,000 diarrhea cases

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The Shanghai Daily reports a duck processor in central China has been dumping duck excrement and dead animals directly into a river, contaminating a drinking water source that later lead to more than 100,000 people getting diarrhea.

Duck farms scattered along the Xiaohuang River in Huangchuan County, Henan Province, were accused of discharging waste in the river, killing fish and polluting the water. The farms belong to Henan Huaying Agricultural Development Co Ltd.??

The local water utility stopped collecting water from the river four years ago as it was too polluted, Shanghai Morning Post reported yesterday.

??However, two reservoirs that were used as new sources of tap water dried up in a drought this year and the county government was forced to resume pumping water from the Xiaohuang in April. Two months later there was a severe outbreak of diarrhea, sickening more than 100,000 villagers.

Three rusted pipes were seen stuck into the muddy river, where bottles and disposable lunch boxes were floating, to collect tap water supplying 280,000 people.