Vox populi

Sheng Dongxia, 38, magazine reporter

The vegetables and fruits sold in the supermarket are cheaper than those sold in the markets sometimes. And it looks much safer. So I like to buy them in the supermarket.

Big companies and old brands make me feel secure.

'Reason', Internet respondent

This issue is just like the contradiction for vegetables. People want to eat insect-free vegetables, while they expect them to be pesticide-free. You know the price and food safety are contradictions. If you buy higher-priced food, or go to a higher-class restaurant, the food will correspondingly be safer than the lower priced ones.

Gao shanyu, 26, engineer

Convenience is the most important thing for me. More and more convenience stores have appeared near my home. So I mostly buy food and vegetables from these stores. But I don't buy cooked food.

'Grace', Internet respondent

I often hear about that the sausage is made of dead pork instead of the fresh, that the majority of watermelon sellers inject medicine into the fruit to make it crisp as well as sweet, and so on. I believe it is high time to improve our citizens' moral standards.

Du Lingcong, 52, singer

The dates on the packets are the important thing we should pay attention to, even when shopping for things like fish and eggs.

We should be particularly careful in summer because the hot environment can easily lead to problems of food safety. The big supermarkets like Carrefour, Walt-Mart and Tesco are better choices.

'Ray', Internet respondent

In my opinion, people who make food for us don't mean to cheat at all. I mean most of them, know the rules and make money honestly. It really matters whether our government has provided a good atmosphere to those people.

(China Daily 08/13/2007 page5)