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McDonald’s is bothered by the addictive scandal in China and the official explanation is still on the waiting list.
Chinese people are still waiting for the “official explanation” of McDonald’s to its addictive scandal of its Chicken McNuggets.
On July 8, McDonald’s China published a report, saying that the company “had enough confidence in its products” and it “would like to cooperate with the national department to have some surveys on its products”.
The State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) said on July 7 that the survey was being made and no result was available yet.
The McDonald’s in Silence
The scandal started from two kinds of addictives – Polydimethy siloxane and Tertiary butylhydroquinone. An insider of McDonald’s China says that they could not provide the purchasing channels and usage limitation about these two addictives before the survey result comes out.
The insider says that 95% of McDonald’s China’s materials were bought in China and the purchasing stuck to McDonald’s universal and normal standards which have been effective for more than 10 years.
According to the SFDA, China’s Act of Addictive for Food had the stipulation that the Polydimethy siloxane can be used in the processing of edible oil and meat products. The maximum dosage of this addictive in edible oil is 10mg/kg and the one in meat products is 0.2g/kg. The Tertiary butyl hydroquinone can be used in fat and oil products and fried food with the maximum dosage of 0.2g/kg.
Though these two addictives are usually seen in our daily life, the core problem of McDonald’s scandal is related with the doubt whether the addictives were qualified and whether the dosage conformed to the standard.
The Uncontrollable Addictives
Actually, the use of food addictives and related administration in China is far from flawless.
The journalist made an undercover investigation into a chemical factory in Guangzhou, which was founded in 2004 and specialized in producing the Tertiary butyl hydroquinone. Its products were widely used in chemistry and food processing.
The journalist contacted with the marketing director of the company as a potential customer. The marketing director responded actively to the journalist’s enquiry by directly asking about how many tons the journalist wanted. He also added that favorable conditions were available if the journalist had a long and big purchasing contract. However, he didn’t ask about what kind of enterprise of the journalist worked for and whether the journalist knew about the usage of food addictives.
When visiting the bread stores in Guangzhou, the journalist found that no bread makers there knew the accurate upper limitation of the food addictives to the bread. Some bread makers even took the addictives by hands based on their experiences.
In June 2010, the “Regulations over Production and Usage of Food Addictives” officially came to the public, according to which the content and amount of food addictives should be printed on the package.
However, the regulations mainly target these big enterprises but have no effect over the food with small output. These foodstuffs usually have no uniformed packages because they are sold right after being made. It is hard for the regulations to have effective administration over these foodstuffs.
Incomplete Administration
In order to change this situation, some government departments in some provinces or cities have begun to work on the effective methods.
In 2009, the Food and Drug Administration Bureau of Chengde City, Hebei Province launched the “Bulletin System of Using Food Addictives”. The food manufacturers there were required to make the bulletin cards for every food addictive – the names, functions and maximum dosage must be printed on the package next to the mark. In addition, the same information must be hung on the production plant in which the workers can know clearly of the dosage of food addictives.
When being interviewed, Mr. Liu, deputy director of the Food and Drug Administration Bureau of Chengde City, said that only oral requirements were previously heard about the food addictives and now the standing book system had been established among local enterprises which recorded the detailed information about purchasing, using and selling food addictives. “Right now, all the food producers in our administration area, whatever sizes they have, have to follow this policy.”
However, he said frankly, this measure is still in the experimental phase and it is quite hard to be spread all over the whole province.
Puzzle of Bulletin System
How to force the food enterprises to inform the customers of the categories and dosage of the food addictives used in the foodstuffs which are sold right after being made? According to Zhou Siran, a researcher in food industry in the China Investment Consulting Company, it is hard to realize this goal.
Zhou Siran said that the bulletin system needs to mark the categories and content of used food addictives; however, some of the related information is unavailable at this moment.
Secondly, the contents of food addictives are hard to be measured. “The content of each kind of food addictive must be measured based on which the total content can be gained by accumulation,” said Zhou. “In addition, the variability of the origin places and categories of raw materials can result in the disparity of categories and contents of addictives. So the value of content is haunted by the inconsistency.”
According to Mr. Liu, aforementioned deputy director of the Food and Drug Administration Bureau of Chengde City, obstacles, especially the technological hurdles, are still getting in the way of letting the consumers know the information about food addictives. Even when the customers know that this kind of addictive can not be used in the food, they have no way to know whether the producers use it during the production without the professional text system.
Presently the production of food is filled with randomness without complete supervision system. Therefore, the administration over the food addictives has to rely on the producers themselves.
Chinese people are still waiting for the “official explanation” of McDonald’s to its addictive scandal of its Chicken McNuggets.
On July 8, McDonald’s China published a report, saying that the company “had enough confidence in its products” and it “would like to cooperate with the national department to have some surveys on its products”.
The State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) said on July 7 that the survey was being made and no result was available yet.
The McDonald’s in Silence
The scandal started from two kinds of addictives – Polydimethy siloxane and Tertiary butylhydroquinone. An insider of McDonald’s China says that they could not provide the purchasing channels and usage limitation about these two addictives before the survey result comes out.
The insider says that 95% of McDonald’s China’s materials were bought in China and the purchasing stuck to McDonald’s universal and normal standards which have been effective for more than 10 years.
According to the SFDA, China’s Act of Addictive for Food had the stipulation that the Polydimethy siloxane can be used in the processing of edible oil and meat products. The maximum dosage of this addictive in edible oil is 10mg/kg and the one in meat products is 0.2g/kg. The Tertiary butyl hydroquinone can be used in fat and oil products and fried food with the maximum dosage of 0.2g/kg.
Though these two addictives are usually seen in our daily life, the core problem of McDonald’s scandal is related with the doubt whether the addictives were qualified and whether the dosage conformed to the standard.
The Uncontrollable Addictives
Actually, the use of food addictives and related administration in China is far from flawless.
The journalist made an undercover investigation into a chemical factory in Guangzhou, which was founded in 2004 and specialized in producing the Tertiary butyl hydroquinone. Its products were widely used in chemistry and food processing.
The journalist contacted with the marketing director of the company as a potential customer. The marketing director responded actively to the journalist’s enquiry by directly asking about how many tons the journalist wanted. He also added that favorable conditions were available if the journalist had a long and big purchasing contract. However, he didn’t ask about what kind of enterprise of the journalist worked for and whether the journalist knew about the usage of food addictives.
When visiting the bread stores in Guangzhou, the journalist found that no bread makers there knew the accurate upper limitation of the food addictives to the bread. Some bread makers even took the addictives by hands based on their experiences.
In June 2010, the “Regulations over Production and Usage of Food Addictives” officially came to the public, according to which the content and amount of food addictives should be printed on the package.
However, the regulations mainly target these big enterprises but have no effect over the food with small output. These foodstuffs usually have no uniformed packages because they are sold right after being made. It is hard for the regulations to have effective administration over these foodstuffs.
Incomplete Administration
In order to change this situation, some government departments in some provinces or cities have begun to work on the effective methods.
In 2009, the Food and Drug Administration Bureau of Chengde City, Hebei Province launched the “Bulletin System of Using Food Addictives”. The food manufacturers there were required to make the bulletin cards for every food addictive – the names, functions and maximum dosage must be printed on the package next to the mark. In addition, the same information must be hung on the production plant in which the workers can know clearly of the dosage of food addictives.
When being interviewed, Mr. Liu, deputy director of the Food and Drug Administration Bureau of Chengde City, said that only oral requirements were previously heard about the food addictives and now the standing book system had been established among local enterprises which recorded the detailed information about purchasing, using and selling food addictives. “Right now, all the food producers in our administration area, whatever sizes they have, have to follow this policy.”
However, he said frankly, this measure is still in the experimental phase and it is quite hard to be spread all over the whole province.
Puzzle of Bulletin System
How to force the food enterprises to inform the customers of the categories and dosage of the food addictives used in the foodstuffs which are sold right after being made? According to Zhou Siran, a researcher in food industry in the China Investment Consulting Company, it is hard to realize this goal.
Zhou Siran said that the bulletin system needs to mark the categories and content of used food addictives; however, some of the related information is unavailable at this moment.
Secondly, the contents of food addictives are hard to be measured. “The content of each kind of food addictive must be measured based on which the total content can be gained by accumulation,” said Zhou. “In addition, the variability of the origin places and categories of raw materials can result in the disparity of categories and contents of addictives. So the value of content is haunted by the inconsistency.”
According to Mr. Liu, aforementioned deputy director of the Food and Drug Administration Bureau of Chengde City, obstacles, especially the technological hurdles, are still getting in the way of letting the consumers know the information about food addictives. Even when the customers know that this kind of addictive can not be used in the food, they have no way to know whether the producers use it during the production without the professional text system.
Presently the production of food is filled with randomness without complete supervision system. Therefore, the administration over the food addictives has to rely on the producers themselves.