Last Updated on 03/09/2024 by Arun jain
Chinese state broadcaster CCTV has revealed details of another major food scandal to rock the country this year, this time involving wolfberries smoked and soaked in banned chemicals.
In A A report aired on Sunday, The broadcaster spoke to wolfberry farmers and traders in a region spanning 14 towns in Jingyuan County, Gansu Province. The report also covers farms in the city of Golmud in Qinghai Province.
At least half a dozen farm workers and dealers openly described on camera how farms soak the berries in sodium metabisulfite, a banned substance in the industry, and spray them with industrial sulfur to preserve their appearance.
“The one that is smoked with sulfur is red and beautiful,” a store owner told the broadcaster. “With sulfur, you can store it for a long time, and the pests don’t grow. Its toxicity is high.
CCTV Broadcast footage Farm workers prepare vats of thick, foaming sodium metabisulfite before washing wolfberries in the dangerous chemical. Sodium metabisulfite is sometimes used in food preservation but is banned in the domestic wolfberry industry, Per state media.
According to clips published by CCTV, some farms will even add the step of fumigating wolfberries with industrial sulfur instead of drying their crops in the sun.
Wolfberry, also known as goji berry, is popular in Chinese traditional medicine and in dishes such as hotpot, and was marketed as a superfood in the West. In 2023, mainland China exported an estimated 14,000 metric tons of wolfberry.
“People like you who sell in other places have no idea,” one trader told CCTV. “It just has a nice look.”
Many traders and farmers spoke about the harm caused by eating wolfberries contaminated with chemicals but said the practice was common.
“With sulphur, you sell for 17 yuan to 18 yuan per cat. Without smoking, it is 10 yuan per cat, 9 yuan per cat. It is not a good price,” said a rural farm worker.
CCTV said its staff tested the wolfberries and found them all unsafe for consumption.
A day after the report was released, the Jingyuan County Food Safety Committee Office announced that it had launched an investigation into the production and sale of local wolfberries.
“Those responsible for violating the rules and regulations will be punished strictly according to law,” The office said in a statement.
Golmud city government a A similar statement on Monday.
The wolfberry scandal comes just two months after another major food-related safety incident rocked the country.
In early July, state outlet Beijing News said it had discovered several cases Unwashed chemical tankers are used for transportation of cooking oil. The practice became so common that workers spoke of it as the industry standard, per outlet.
China, plagued by a decades-long history of food scandals — from tainted milk powder to sewage oil reused in restaurants — has gone away. Household consumer confidence in commercially sold food.
Since his early days as China’s top leader, Xi Jinping has promised to crack down on food safety breaches, saying they will be central to how people view the government.
“If our party, while ruling China, cannot even guarantee food security, and cannot do so in the long run, people will begin to question whether we are fit to rule,” he said in 2013.
Allegations of excessive sulfur fumigation in the Chinese traditional medicine industry have surfaced before, with leading retailers often selling wolfberry and other products. “Sulfite free.”
Post Chinese farmers in 14 towns spraying industrial sulfur on wolfberries to make them ‘red and beautiful’: state media appeared first Business Insider.