From Chinese Press

Give us untainted milk

(China Daily)
Updated: 2011-02-22 07:57

The recent milk scandal has touched the sensitive nerves of the public. "Leather milk", or milk with added protein hydrolysate derived from leather wastes to boost protein content, is indeed a big cause for worry, says an article in People's Daily. Excerpts:

As people's living standards rise because of the country's fast economic development, they require food of different varieties. The government has paid unprecedented attention to food safety in recent years and fixed stricter punishment for companies operating illegally or contaminating their products to save money.

But ironically, people seem to be more worried about food safety.

Illegal and unscrupulous companies lie low for a while every time supervision departments crack down on them only to emerge stronger after their "hibernation". This has made consumers see risks everywhere.

Worse, even some well-known companies have been embroiled in food scandals, dealing a further blow to people's confidence.

A deeper analysis shows food safety problems are related to China's current development stage. Decentralized management of more than 200 million farmers poses a great challenge for supervision officials.

Besides, there still are supervision loopholes and hidden hazards in the mechanism to prevent epidemic among animals, production of agricultural commodities, food processing and sales.

To remove people's concern on food safety and regain their trust, supervision departments have to take more routine and systematic measures.

(China Daily 02/22/2011 page9)