Draft beer, a popular drink, is made by filling the beer pulp with food-grade carbon dioxide. Recently, in the "Iron Fist" action deployed by the State Administration of Market Supervision in the field of people's livelihood in 2021, the Zhejiang Provincial Market Supervision Department investigated and handled a number of cases of illegal addition of draft beer. In order to save production costs, criminals have used industrial carbon dioxide instead of food-grade carbon dioxide to make draft beer, and the benzene content exceeds the national standard by 15 times.
The benzene content exceeds the national standard by 15 times
Recently, the Zhejiang Provincial Market Supervision Bureau took the lead in carrying out special law enforcement inspections on the illegal addition of industrial carbon dioxide to draft beer. 101 cities and counties (districts) dispatched 7,055 law enforcement personnel to inspect 5,630 restaurants, beer distributors and carbon dioxide filling enterprises.
(On-site inspection by law enforcement officers)
Lin Mou, a beer dealer in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, said that a gas tank containing 8 liters of carbon dioxide can be configured with 360 liters of draft beer. At first, he bought carbon dioxide gas tanks from regular food additive manufacturers, but later heard that filling industrial carbon dioxide was cheap, so he began to use industrial carbon dioxide mixed with draft beer pulp. Law enforcement officials inspected and found that from August 2020 to July 2021, Lin sold more than 60,000 liters of this beer.
In terms of taste and flavor, there is not much difference between draft beer made with industrial carbon dioxide and beer made with food-grade carbon dioxide. However, compared with the national standards for food-grade carbon dioxide, industrial carbon dioxide has low purity and many impurities, and there is no limit to toxic and harmful substances such as benzene and total volatile hydrocarbons.
Law enforcement officers sent the seized industrial carbon dioxide samples to professional institutions for inspection and testing, and the results showed that the benzene content exceeded the national standard by 15 times, the sulfur dioxide content exceeded the national standard by 15 times, the carbon monoxide content exceeded the national standard by 8 times, and the total volatile hydrocarbon content exceeded the national standard by 4.5 times.
The Food Safety Law clearly stipulates that chemical substances other than food additives shall not be added to food.
Liu Zhu, deputy director of the Food Inspection Institute of Zhejiang Food and Drug Inspection and Research Institute, introduced that benzene is a commonly used organic solvent and is usually used as a basic raw material in industry. Due to its harmfulness to the human body, it is strictly restricted in terms of food-grade raw materials and packaging. The use of industrial carbon dioxide to make draft beer is an illegal act of illegal addition, and the excess benzene, total volatile hydrocarbons and other toxic and harmful substances contained in it remain in the beer, which will cause potential risks to food safety.
Law enforcement officers traced the source of the seized restaurants, and checked upstream distributors, related distribution enterprises and gas packaging enterprises to find out whether the enterprises had relevant production and operation qualifications. At the same time, the records of carbon dioxide procurement, distribution and filling were traced, and the relevant parties involved in the case were investigated and punished.
"The illegal addition of industrial carbon dioxide to draft beer is more common in the industry, and an illegal industrial chain has been formed." Lu Liquan, director of the Law Enforcement inspection department of the Zhejiang Provincial Market Supervision Bureau, said. Up to now, Zhejiang Province has carried out 863 cases of special law enforcement inspections of illegal addition of beer, and seized 1982 illegal gas cylinders.
Each 100 cups can make an extra profit of about 20 yuan, and the main seller is a restaurant or bar
Knowing that adding industrial carbon dioxide is illegal, why do unscrupulous businesses dare to take risks?
Zhou Mou, an operator in Longwan District, Wenzhou City, Zhejiang Province, said: "Draft beer is purchased from the dealer, and the machine and carbon dioxide gas for making draft beer are provided free of charge by the dealer, and the dealer recycles it after each gas tank is used up." The inspection found that since the beginning of this year, he has sold 660 liters of draft beer and illegally made a profit of 2706 yuan.
According to law enforcement officials, dealers usually provide free beer rifting machines and carbon dioxide gas for catering operators, and the cylinder bottles are recycled after use. The distributor then sends the air cylinders to an industrial carbon dioxide gas production enterprise, where they are refilled and put into use. The bottles of these cylinders are generally not marked by food grade labels.
Martin Ding, deputy head of the comprehensive administrative law enforcement team of the Jinhua Market Supervision Bureau in Zhejiang Province, said that the price of industrial carbon dioxide is 2.5 yuan to 3 yuan per liter, which is about half of the food grade carbon dioxide. Catering operators illegally use industrial carbon dioxide to make draft beer, and they can make a profit of about 20 yuan per 100 cups. A small restaurant can make at least 500 yuan more per month, and the bar or larger restaurant has more room for profit.
At this point, the illegal industrial chain has surfaced: the upstream is a carbon dioxide production enterprise; the middle reaches are carbon dioxide gas distribution enterprises and beer distributors; and the terminal is the main body of catering business.
Relevant departments will further intensify the crackdown, and it is necessary to pay attention to the lack of industrial support
"The illegal use of industrial carbon dioxide to make draft beer, in addition to the profit drive, there are also reasons such as the lack of industrial support." Lu Liquan introduced that there are few qualified food-grade carbon dioxide production enterprises and high transportation costs.
Taking Zhejiang Province as an example, from the preliminary situation grasped by the case investigation and handling, the number of compliant food-grade carbon dioxide filling enterprises is only 5, mainly concentrated in Hangzhou, Ningbo and other places, and carbon dioxide cylinders belong to the category of dangerous chemicals, which have high requirements for inter-regional transportation and storage, and high logistics costs.
According to the relevant person in charge of the Law Enforcement and Inspection Bureau of the State Administration for Market Regulation, this case belongs to the addition of chemical substances other than food additives to food. The production of food from non-food raw materials, the addition of chemical substances other than food additives, and the addition of drugs to food are collectively referred to as illegal additions to food.
According to statistics, since 2020, the national market supervision department has investigated and handled 7821 cases of illegal addition of food, fines and confiscations of 101 million yuan, 37 cases of license revocation, and 1411 cases transferred to public security organs.
The market supervision department will further intensify the crackdown and cut off the illegal chain of illegal addition of food. All those who deliberately and illegally add them will be strictly and severely investigated and punished in accordance with law; all those who can revoke their licenses will be revoked; all suspected crimes will be transferred to the public security organs; and all those who can be punished will be punished to the person. It is important to make food safety violators pay a heavy price. (Reporter Zhao Wenjun)
Source: Xinhua News Agency