Gold leaf cake, gold leaf steak, gold leaf ice cream... In recent years, gold leaf has frequently been "in the same frame" with various foods, which has captured the hearts of many consumers, but there are safety risks in foods with gold leaf.
On February 9, according to the state's multi-departmental notice, the Autonomous Region's Market Supervision Bureau asked the market supervision departments in Guangxi to investigate and punish the illegal acts of producing and trading food containing gold and silver foil powder in accordance with the law, and curb the "wind of eating gold". However, the reporter found on the e-commerce platform that there are still some merchants selling gold and silver foil powder products used for food packaging such as cakes.
▲ On February 9, there were still gold leaf products for food decoration on the e-commerce platform.
On February 9, on an e-commerce platform, the reporter searched for "gold leaf food" as a keyword and found that there were still many related goods for sale. In an online store, a gold leaf paper for food decoration such as cakes, ice cream and desserts claimed to be "99% gold content of 24K pure gold leaf", and 10 sheets were sold for 90 yuan. In product reviews, the positive rating rate exceeded 96%.
In another store, there are a variety of items for sale such as gold and silver foil, gold powder, etc. for baked goods decoration, and buyers can choose from a variety of colors.
▲ On February 9, a shop called "Shengyi Food Franchise Store" sold a variety of products for the decoration of baked goods, such as gold and silver foil and gold powder.
On short video platforms, there are also bloggers who post videos of "gilded" foods to make food look more high-end and eye-catching. A piece of chocolate covered with a thin layer of gold leaf can be multiplied in value and sold for tens of thousands of yuan, and the question of "whether it is edible" raised by netizens will often get a positive answer from the video protagonist's "personal experiment".
The staff of the Food Production Department of the Autonomous Region Market Supervision Bureau said that according to the mainland's food safety laws and regulations and food safety standards, gold and silver foil powder is not a food additive and cannot be used for food production and operation. The market supervision department will strictly supervise food safety, urge food producers and operators to strictly implement the main responsibility, and require food producers not to purchase and use gold and silver foil powder to produce processed food, food sellers must not purchase and sell food containing gold and silver foil powder, and catering service providers must not make and sell meals containing gold and silver foil powder.
At the same time, the market supervision department will urge the online trading platform to strictly prohibit the sale of food containing gold and silver foil powder on the platform, strengthen the monitoring of online transactions of "food containing gold and silver foil powder" and "edible gold and silver foil powder", and timely urge the online trading platform to take disposal measures such as removing shelves in accordance with the law.
The market supervision departments will also severely crack down on advertising and publicity behaviors that violate the good social customs, such as adding gold and silver foil powder to food as a gimmick, advocating extravagant pleasure and money worship, and strictly investigating and punishing false and illegal advertisements that publicize the addition of gold and silver foil powder to food with health care functions and therapeutic effects in accordance with the law.
Reporter Zhao Jinsong
Source: Southern Morning Post