Food safety betting test is not enough

Rice noodles, vegetables, fruits, eggs, poultry, etc. Food safety incidents are like time bombs, which may affect three meals a day at any time. Food safety testing is like the last line of defense. The reporter recently visited the Shanghai food safety monitoring agency and found that the food safety “gatekeepers” are confused. The solution may lie in: safety foods should not be "betting treasure" before the food market testing, but should be ahead of time, and then advance!

It is difficult to check the authenticity of meat in the laboratory

Some time ago, adulteration of mutton meat was raging, and the counterfeiters admitted using fox instead of mutton. According to the surprise inspection of the suspected hot pot restaurant, the adulterated "mixed lamb" was exposed. The public can not help but wonder: Consumers are difficult to distinguish between genuine and fake meat, with a variety of advanced equipment and food testing agencies are also difficult to distinguish the authenticity?

In fact, authoritative third-party food testing agencies are also confused about this. "If the mixed meat is tested, the indicators are likely to be 'up to standard'. To distinguish whether it is pure lamb or mixed meat, it can be identified only by extracting DNA." Test in Shanghai at the Caohejing Development Zone, Xuhui District, Shanghai The room is a large-scale comprehensive third-party testing agency with China National Accreditation Service for Conformity Assessment (CNAS) and CMA qualifications. Its deputy general manager Song Hong admitted frankly, “With the help of existing equipment, laboratory personnel can detect whether bacteria contain bacteria, or various indicators. Whether they meet the standards or not, it is a bit difficult for them to tell what kind of meat they are."

Even with the use of DNA detection, adulterated meat does not even require mutton. Using only a little sheep's oil or sheep's mutton, one can deceive the DNA test; as long as it contains the tissue components of the sheep, the DNA of the sheep can be detected.

It has been proposed whether a unified standard can be issued to regulate how much lamb meat can be called as lamb meat, and publicize it on the packaging. If it is lower than the standard, it should be labeled as mixed meat. Song Hong said: "This operation is very difficult." Because, even if it takes time and labor to identify the DNA of adulterated meat, food testing agencies can only do qualitative analysis, can not quantitatively determine, that is to say only to determine what is mixed " "Pseudo lamb," can not clearly determine the proportion of all kinds of fake meat. If you want to quantify, you need to introduce a more professional genetic testing agency to do DNA comparison, which is bound to greatly increase the cost of testing each batch of food. The increase in the cost of food testing will ultimately be paid by consumers, and food prices are likely to be pushed up.

It is difficult to detect beyond the scope of the standard

Professional food science and engineering, sophisticated and advanced testing equipment, constantly updated testing methods, and meticulous detection team, why can not completely intercept unsafe food slipped onto the table. “The work of third-party food testing is largely based on the “copycat”, which is a variety of food safety standards. Once adulterated substances exceed the scope of national food safety standards, food testing agencies are hard to find Song Hong gave an example: Prior to the melamine incident, the spectrum test only tested melamine when it was used to detect crops in accordance with national regulations. After the incident was exposed, melamine was added to the milk test.

According to statistics, there are 1900 national standards for food, food additives, and food-related products in China, more than 1,200 local standards, and more than 3,100 industrial standards. Some standards have been standing still for a long time; some standards have different provenances, and the limits of uniform ingredients are Poor connection or even fights often make food testing “according to plans” fail, and also leave room for “bargaining” for normal production food companies. Professor Zhong Yaoguang of Shanghai Ocean University’s School of Food told reporters that even at the national level of food safety standards, it is divided into mandatory limits and recommended indicators. Among the recommended indicators, there is a large choice of companies. For example, in the Nongfu Spring drinking water incident, there was a shadow of national and local standards fighting.

For example, a number of authoritative testing organizations have detected that the lead content of spirulina products such as “Green A”, “Thomson” and “Jin Aoli” has exceeded the standard; subsequently, the State Food and Drug Administration gave the above brand products “ Rehabilitate." Originally, the testing standards of the two authorities are based on the "General Standard for Health (Functional) Foods (GB16740-1997)" implemented in February 1997, which clearly states: "The lead content standard general product is ≤ 0.5mg/kg, capsules Products ≤1.5mg/kg, algae and tea as raw materials, solid beverages and capsule products ≤2.0mg/kg. The former identifies the test product as a general product, while the latter refers to the standards of solid beverages and capsule products using algae and tea as raw materials, so the test results are quite different.

One-size-fits-all for "national standard" to be discussed

The good news is that after enacting the "Food Safety Law", the state has clearly defined the principle of uniformly formulating national food safety standards. That is, the health department integrates the existing standards for the safety and quality of edible agricultural products, food hygiene standards, and food quality standards, and uniformly promulgates them as food products. Safety national standards. Since 2010, the Ministry of Health has carried out major cleanups of food standards, and many food safety standards have been updated at an accelerating rate. The absence or easing of certain important ingredient standards has also been made up step by step. "However, China's food safety standards should not be quickly raised to the CAC (the Codex Alimentarius Commission, the food safety standards universally recognized by all countries in the world), the European Union or Japanese standards." Zhong Yaoguang believes that countries in the world in the development of food safety standards, All will protect their own companies in accordance with their national interests. Although the European Union or Japan has the world's leading food safety standards, it is not entirely suitable for the current state of food safety in China that is still under development. “Furthermore, China also has some food safety indicators that are higher than the EU or Japan.”

Some people have pointed out that China's existing food standard multi-headed management system is complex, why not directly unified as a national standard, to eliminate the possibility of self-endorsement of industry, local or corporate standards? "The development of the food industry is a process. New products are constantly emerging beyond the 'safety zone' defined by existing food standards. Establishing reasonable food safety standards has become a survival requirement for companies or industries. In particular, some food companies have Exports refer to the high standards and strict requirements of the international advanced level, and formulate relevant food safety standards.Therefore, some industry standards or corporate standards are far higher than the corresponding national standards. If the overall standard is 'national standard', it may reduce many food products. Safety standards." Zhong Yaoguang said.

Production process can provide early warning of risks

Strict food safety standards also have certain limitations and will lag behind the rapid development of the food industry. After all, the formulation of any food standard is a relatively complicated process. It needs the full demonstration of the expert committee and the rigorous review of the relevant departments. There must be a substantial time difference. This is also true in the European Union or Japan where food safety is very strong. According to Zhao Zhihui, director of the Institute of Agricultural Products Quality Standards and Testing Technology, Shanghai Academy of Agricultural Sciences, regardless of the work practices of third-party testing organizations or scientifically speaking, the entire food industry chain's safety fence is tightly tied to food safety standards. And food testing itself is not scientific enough. "Safe food is produced, not detected." From the time of planting to the market, all food should be subject to risk control.

At present, the ideal approach is that unsafe food is still at the end of Qing Ping. The relevant agencies can capture the harmful factors, give full scientific research, make appropriate safety warnings and risk assessments, and update foods in a timely manner. Safety standards and food testing samples.

Following the establishment of the National Food Safety Risk Assessment Center, the Shanghai Laboratory of Agricultural Product Quality Risk Assessment of the Ministry of Agriculture was established in the Shanghai Academy of Agricultural Sciences last month. Zhao Zhihui disclosed that the Shanghai laboratory will conduct research and development and optimization of detection methods for pesticides, mycotoxins, heavy metals, additives, food-borne pathogenic microorganisms, and other safety hazard factors to determine the migration of hazard factors, and their mechanisms for environmental and food safety. Toxicological evaluation research provides management departments with technical support for risk communication and risk management, and establishes and applies risk assessment models to initially establish a quality safety inspection, evaluation, early warning and control system for agricultural products. At the same time, special food safety risk assessments and early warnings are carried out in edible fungi, vegetables, feed, pesticides, fertilizers, and other fields.