Food safety has always been a public safety issue that the people are most concerned about, especially in the food involving children, which has made people angry.
For example, the problem rice incident in Youyang, Chongqing, which broke out recently.
Here's how it happened.
Recently, Mr. Gong from Chongqing reported to the market supervision department that when he went to work at about 8 o'clock on June 6, 2023, he saw with his own eyes that the staff of Youyang Grain Company had packed the white packaging of rice in the Banxi Rice Warehouse with the production date of October 16, 2022 and the name of "Jingwei Mei Shrimp Rice Fragrant Rice" into a new yellow packaging bag with the production date of May 5, 2023 and May 10, 2023 and the name of "Taoyuan Tribute Rice". Then, the staff will sew and seal the newly loaded rice with a hand-sewing machine.
The expired rice was repackaged and re-dated and sold to some local village schools.
On October 14, the Chongqing Market Supervision Bureau reported on the "Youyang County Grain Co., Ltd. Sales of Rice", and it was found that from May 2022 to April 2024, the enterprises involved replaced the dynamic rotation rice of the company's grain depot for external sales by means of self-loading and entrusting packaging, and there were illegal acts such as false labeling of the shelf life.
At present, the Chongqing Market Supervision Bureau has imposed administrative penalties on Duan Moumou, the former executive director and general manager of the company, Ran Moumou, the deputy general manager, and Chen Moumou, the sales supervisor of the production and operation department, and issued an administrative penalty notice. Chongqing Grain Group has dismissed Duan and Ran, and demoted Chen to a general employee and transferred from his original position. Leads on suspected violations of discipline and law by relevant personnel shall be transferred to the relevant departments for handling.
However, a sentence in the conclusion of the investigation is inevitably slanderous, "After checking one by one, the actual remaining shelf life of the rice involved in the case is the shortest 95 days and the longest is 176 days, and it is within the original shelf life when it is sold to the outside world." The above 23,119.5 kg of rice was consumed within the original shelf life. ”
What do you mean, I was caught and appeared, but I still have to emphasize, it's not a big deal!
Coincidentally, a similar situation has happened in Japan, which is known for its food safety, and we might as well see how they deal with it.
In Japan, there is a type of rice called accident rice (also known as accident rice jikomai), which refers to non-edible rice used in industry, which often has pesticide residues or aflatoxin B1 exceedance.
In August 2008, the Japan Agricultural Administration conducted an on-site investigation of the processing of the unexpected rice and found that Mikasa Foods had sold the unexpected rice obtained from the tender as edible rice.
Rice goes to food processing plants, breweries, confectionery factories and canteens for school meals. In total, there are about 375 institutions.
Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries hastened to issue an announcement recalling the rice and publishing a list of companies that purchased the rice in question to warn consumers.
On September 16 of the same year, Shoichi Nakagawa (54), president of a rice sales company in Koryeo Town, Nara Prefecture, hanged himself with the wire of a vacuum cleaner. He always thought that the rice he sold was made in Japan, but he did not expect that it was mixed with problem rice, and in shame, he chose to commit suicide to apologize.
Shimada Chemical, which supplies raw materials for lunches to schools and kindergartens in 21 cities and prefectures in Japan, also had to announce its closure because it mixed problematic rice with raw materials to produce starch.
On September 18, 2008, Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Seiichi Ota and Vice Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Toshiro Shirasu, who were in charge of responding to the incident, resigned.
Although there were no cases of consumers feeling unwell due to eating the rice in question, neither the Japan government nor the private sector spared the people involved.
At the official level, a total of 25 officials from various departments were punished, except for the resignation of the chief and deputy ministers. In the criminal section, two Mikasa executives were both sentenced to two years in prison.
But that's not the end of the story. In 2010, after reflecting on the accident, the Japan enacted the Act on the Recording of Transaction Information and the Transmission of Origin Information on Rice, etc., which not only requires the sale and management of rice to keep complete records of the origin and transaction of rice, but also fulfills the obligation to convey information on the origin of rice to consumers.
It's not scary to face a problem, and shame or not will determine whether it recurs again.