Is it safe to eat?

Melamine milk, clenbuterol, lobster muscle lysis, flour brightener, Hainan venom beans, Danyang explosion melon, plasticizer beverage... In recent years, agricultural products and food quality safety incidents that have been exposed one after another, sting again and again The fragile nerves of consumers. People talk about food and discoloration, and some people even exclaimed: Before we talked about what we couldn't eat, we now talk about the topic and become “there's something else we can eat.”

Is the food we eat now more and more insecure? On this issue, the reporter recently interviewed relevant experts in agriculture and food safety.

Shi Zhiqi, director of the Production Quality and Input Safety Research Office of the Provincial Academy of Agricultural Sciences, told reporters that professionals divided food into agricultural products and foods, processed them without processing or simple processing, and processed food after deep processing. “First of all, I would not hesitate to discuss the agricultural products. Conclusion: The quality and safety of the agricultural products we produce now are certainly higher and higher!”

Shi Zhiqi said that agricultural inputs are the main factor that determines the level of quality and safety of agricultural products. Let's look at pesticides first. Ten years ago, high-toxicity and high-residue pesticides were still widely used in agricultural production. Later, they were gradually restricted, banned, and turned into current production bans. High-efficiency, low-toxic, low-residue pesticides were widely used in agricultural production. In the past, pesticides contained high levels of pesticides, and the proportion of fungicides with lower toxicity was higher than that of insecticides. Biological control methods such as biopesticides and insecticide lamps and insect nets were also increasingly used in agriculture.

Another example was the recent bombing of melons, which exposed the problem of crop growth regulators and caused consumer panic. The sales of watermelons plummeted. In fact, improper use of crop growth regulators will only affect the yield and quality of agricultural products, but the risk of harm to the health of consumers will be extremely low.

Experts pointed out that it is worth noting that excessive levels of heavy metals in soils and crops caused by environmental pollution are increasingly becoming the biggest hidden dangers in the quality and safety of agricultural products. Scientific research shows that consumers' long-term consumption of agricultural products with excessive levels of heavy metals such as lead, cadmium, arsenic, chromium, and mercury will not only cause serious harm to the health of themselves or even their offspring. In this regard, it deserves a high degree of attention.

Compared with agricultural products, food quality and safety issues are more complex and much more serious. Huang Kaihong, director of the Institute of Agricultural Products Processing at the Provincial Academy of Agricultural Sciences, said that the food industry has two famous sayings: "There is no food industry without food additives," and the other sentence is "Food industry is a moral industry." The use of food additives must follow two principles: The first is the legal use. All food safety incidents are related to additives and most of them are added illegally. Such as the Sanlu milk powder incident and the incident of Shuanghui's meat products, it is the food company that knowingly commits an offence in the production process and uses the melamine and lean meat extract that the state has banned. If the food safety incident caused by this illegal act can be effectively curbed, the food safety situation will be much better. The second principle is the rational use, that is, how much, how to add. Even if food additives that are allowed by the country are used, if they are not used excessively, or if they are used excessively, it will also affect food safety.

Experts said that the large-scale use of food additives has promoted the development of the food industry, but illegal use and improper use have also caused food safety incidents to occur frequently. However, the conclusion that “food is increasingly unsafe” cannot be simply concluded. The reasons are as follows: First, according to statistical data, the total output value of the food industry in China was 2.1 trillion yuan in 2000, and it exceeded 10 trillion yuan last year, accounting for a quarter of the country's total GDP. It has grown rapidly, and has grown in size. Also more. We can make such an analogy. The number of road accident deaths in a city has increased by 10 times compared with the previous year, but the number of motor vehicles has increased by 1,000 times. Do you say that the level of traffic safety has decreased or increased? Secondly, food safety standards are now much higher than before. Today, the food company's workshop environmental hygiene standards are equivalent to the standards of the former pharmaceutical pharmaceutical plant. There are many agricultural inputs and food additives that were previously allowed by the country. Later, as the level of scientific research was improved, it was found to be harmful to human health, so regulations were banned. Clenbuterol is an example. It was imported from the United States by scientific researchers from Zhejiang University. A small amount of pig meat was added to pig feed to increase the lean meat yield. The results of this study also won the second prize for national science and technology progress. Clenbuterol does not pose a threat to human health if it is strictly controlled. The United States is still using it. However, as some domestic aquaculture industries do not control excessive use, the country has subsequently banned the use of it in order to protect the health of consumers. Therefore, the occurrence of the clenbuterol incident does not mean that the current pork is not as safe as it used to be; on the contrary, the previously permitted practice has now become illegal and severely punished, indicating that the current level of pork safety is increasing.

In the interview, many agricultural experts believed that the current incident of agricultural products and food safety was a worrying and irritating incident. However, simply saying that “the things we eat are becoming increasingly unsafe” is also based on inadequate. In the past, some of the foods that were eaten were toxic foods that were banned from selling according to current standards. However, due to the limited level of understanding at that time or the shortage of supplies, people would not treat them as toxic foods. For example, cottonseed oil was commonly used in cotton production areas in our province. This oil contains carcinogenic substances. Later, the supply of oil was abundant. People changed oilseed rapeseed oil. Later, high erucic acid rapeseed was safer and had higher nutritional value. Canola alternative. In addition, information disclosure and communication development are unprecedentedly improved. Once there are food safety incidents, media reports immediately catch up, and it is often prone to psychological panic among consumers as it facilitates investigation of issues and attracts attention.

Safeguarding agricultural products and food safety is a “war” that will never end. With the continuous improvement of the level of scientific understanding and continuous improvement of food safety standards, the old problems have been solved and new problems will emerge. Experts believe that for consumers to eat safe and eat with confidence, they need to work together in several ways: government departments must strictly monitor the food market and illegal activities, and crack down on it; food production companies must strictly enforce self-discipline; scientific research units must strengthen Study to find out whether currently allowed agricultural inputs and food additives are harmful to human health and seek to develop safer alternatives.

At the same time, experts also called for consumers to change their concepts and establish a scientific and healthy concept of food consumption. They should not be excessively pursuing the external appearances such as beautiful appearance and color and fragrance. For example, milk is originally white and medium-yellow and is as thin as rice broth, and its aroma is not strong. In order to meet consumer demands, manufacturers have added thickeners, flavoring agents, brighteners, etc. during processing. A variety of additives make it more white, thicker, more fragrant, and taste better. Although these additives are all allowed by the country, many are unnecessary. With each additional additive, consumers will bear a greater risk of possible food safety.