By Jessica Tran, Food Safety News
Infected snail meat, poisonous mushrooms, goat meat marinated in duck urine to make it taste and smell like lamb – these are just some of the culinary delights that China’s food industry has served to its citizens since 2006.
Chinese food vendor prepping food to be sold to the people. Photo from Food Safety News.
In a move to clean up China’s international reputation for appalling food safety, new food safety laws will ban firms caught producing or selling unsafe foods from operating. As a result of these new laws, if a company’s food license is revoked, company executives and employees will not be allowed to work in the food industry for five years.
But is fixing the problem as simple as spouting out new laws? The Chinese government will have a hard time battling the deep-seated attitudes of Chinese companies determined to take shortcuts for a quick yuan; it may take many years to see real progress.
Harrowing stories emerge when you poke into China’s food safety record. In 2004, a company was charged for making soy sauce from human hair, gathered from public places like hair salons and hospitals, and mixed with condoms, used menstrual pads, and used syringes.
Read the full story by Jessica Tran from Food Safety News.
