Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, April 21, 2019 Title: How did "fake sesame oil" come out? ——A major case exposed the unspoken rules of adulteration of sesame oil
Xinhua News Agency", reporters Zhao Wenjun and Wang Kun
The price of sesame sesame oil produced by a company in Hebei is much lower than the market price, what is the cat grease behind it?
On the 21st, the State Administration of Market Supervision announced a case of producing and selling fake and inferior sesame oil, unveiling the unspoken rules of adulteration of some bad enterprises in the sesame oil industry, which made people vigilant and thoughtful. The reporter of "Xinhua Viewpoint" conducted an interview on the investigation and handling of the case.
Receiving reports from the masses, law enforcement personnel secretly take samples
At the beginning of 2019, the Market Supervision Bureau of Xingtai City, Hebei Province, received reports from the public that there was adulteration in sesame sesame oil, sesame paste and other products produced by Hebei Kitchen Friends Edible Oil Co., Ltd. Market research found that the company sold only 18 yuan / kg of kitchen friends brand sesame oil, far below the market price of 25 yuan / kg. According to rough statistics, the company's annual sales exceed 8 million yuan.
In April 2019, the law enforcement personnel of the Xingtai Municipal Market Supervision Bureau secretly sampled 8 batches of sesame sesame oil and sesame paste produced and operated by Hebei Kitchen Friends Edible Oil Co., Ltd., and the inspection found that the fatty acid composition of multiple batches of sesame sesame oil was unqualified, peanut ingredients were detected in sesame sauce, and aflatoxin exceeded the standard.
If the inspection is not qualified, where is the source of the problem? The law enforcement personnel investigated and found that the company involved in the case purchased "red oil" and "sesame oil essence" from Li Yuanyou, an individual farmer who operated sesame seeds in Xingtai, and after blending, pretended to be pure sesame oil for sale, and Li Yuanyou was the agent seller of "red oil" and "sesame oil essence" in Xingtai.
What is "red oil"? From the appearance, the oil has no obvious taste, and the color of the oil body is almost exactly the same as the color of pure sesame sesame oil; the outer packaging is labeled "Special for Kitchen Drinks", and the ingredients are labeled "Corn and Soybean Blended Oil". Curiously, this "red oil" is not sold to catering units or supermarkets at all in Xingtai, and its sales groups are all sesame oil production enterprises and sesame oil mills. The cost of "fake sesame oil" is about 5500 yuan / ton, while the cost of pure sesame oil is about 30000 yuan / ton; if calculated according to the market retail price, the profit of "fake sesame oil" is as high as 4 to 6 times.
At this point, a criminal network specializing in providing fraudulent raw materials for sesame oil companies and sesame oil mills has gradually surfaced.
Peel off the cocoon and crack the "fake sesame oil" ingredient
The newly revised national food safety standard "Vegetable Oil (GB2716-2018)" clearly stipulates that "a single variety of edible vegetable oil shall not be mixed with other oils and fats", and the "Sesame Oil (GB/T8233)" standard also stipulates that "sesame oil shall not be mixed with other edible oils and non-edible oils; no flavors and spices shall be added".
However, market supervision law enforcement officers have fallen into difficulties. Due to the production process and trade secrets, at present, the ingredients of flavors are only labeled with food spices and food flavor excipients, and their chemical components are not marked. In the actual case handling process, it is impossible to find an effective detection method to distinguish the ingredients in the mixed oil, and even the fatty acid components of some "fake sesame oil" also meet the requirements of relevant inspection standards after being mixed by "veterans".
Law enforcement officers learned through multi-party investigation that the "sesame oil essence" used by the enterprise involved in the case was a product produced by a factory in Sichuan Province, and the law enforcement personnel pretended to be catering personnel to obtain two bottles of "sesame oil essence" through the Taobao store of the factory.
However, how to test and prove that "sesame oil" is indeed added to the "fake sesame oil"? What are the ingredients in "red oil" and "sesame oil essence"? If this problem cannot be solved, it will be impossible to issue an authoritative and effective test report, and it will be impossible to provide "ironclad evidence" for the investigation and handling of the case.
Law enforcement officers consulted a large number of domestic and foreign data literature, learned that the composition of "sesame olein" is mainly ethyl maltol, and finally identified 2 laboratories that can be tested. However, after the first 8 batches of samples involved in the case were sent for testing, the test report showed that "ethyl maltol was not detected", which was like a blow to the law enforcement officers who had just seen hope.
In the face of this result, law enforcement personnel were not discouraged, on the one hand, they repeatedly retested with the inspectors to find the cause, on the other hand, they repeatedly communicated with the technical personnel of the brand sesame oil production enterprises; some law enforcement personnel dressed up in disguise, mixed into the grain and oil industry to investigate and inquire about the unspoken rules of the industry.
Eventually, law enforcement officers were informed of a "dosing list" of "fake sesame oils," and as many as 22 chemicals are known. After communicating with several professional authoritative inspection institutions in China, the relevant standard formulation departments and brand sesame oil production enterprises, through repeated comparison and research, the key ingredients added by "sesame oil essence" were finally confirmed: vanillin, methyl vanillin, ethyl vanillin, and ethyl maltol.
Law enforcement personnel specially purchased sesame oil produced by domestic brand companies from the market as a control sample for comparison, together with laboratory personnel specially purchased sesame raw materials and pressing equipment, self-made pure sesame sesame oil for testing, and finally excluded the interference of the background value of some projects, and locked the main components of "sesame oil essence" as ethyl vanillin and ethyl maltol, two spice ingredients that can only be synthesized artificially. Law enforcement officers extracted more than 100 batches of samples involved in the case, all of which were sent to a top laboratory in China for testing, and the results were shocking: the unqualified rate of the samples involved in the case was as high as 96%.
So far, this breakthrough has provided a key basis for the characterization of the case, and has also unveiled the unspoken rules of some unscrupulous enterprises in the sesame oil industry.
Trace the roots, dig deep and investigate thoroughly
Where is the "red oil" and "sesame oil essence" represented by Li Yuanyou online? Through further investigation, law enforcement officers found that the manufacturer of the "red oil" - Shenyang Xinmeifeng Food Co., Ltd.; "red oil" is its main product, and at the same time with the sale of "sesame oil essence", the sales customers are all practitioners in the sesame oil industry. Law enforcement officers found that in just two months, its "red oil" sold throughout the country reached more than 10,000 pieces (40 kg / piece), and the market value was tens of millions of yuan.
Law enforcement personnel conducted a comprehensive mapping and sampling test of the above companies involved in the case, and in the 14 batches of products sent for inspection, all batches of sesame oil flavor ingredients were detected, and the vast majority of fatty acid components were unqualified; all batches of sesame sauce peanut ingredients were detected, and the vast majority of sesame sauce aflatoxin exceeded the standard.
After investigation, Shenyang Xinmeifeng Company's downline involves Hebei, Henan, Liaoning, Beijing and other provinces, the case is a multi-level collusion, horizontal cross-interconnection of the vein, has sorted out 27 downline clues involving Shandong, Liaoning, Hebei, Shanxi and other provinces 12 cities, the local market supervision department and public security organs jointly enforced the law, resolutely cracked down on food violations and crimes.
At present, the case has destroyed the extraordinarily large network of illegal production and operation of fake and shoddy sesame oil involving 12 provinces, arrested 83 people involved in the case, seized more than 400 tons of fake and shoddy sesame oil and "red oil", and 24 production lines, involving an amount of more than 200 million yuan; the 10 main suspects were sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment ranging from 1 year and 6 months to 8 years in the first instance, and were fined. The production license of Hebei Kitchen Friends Edible Oil Co., Ltd. has been revoked according to law, and the relevant legal representatives and direct responsible persons have been banned from business.
Author: Zhao Wenjun Wang Kun
Source: Xinhua Net