The first national standard for food-stuffing is likely to be
announced later this year, laying out mandatory requirements for
fillings used in popular items such as moon-cakes and frozen sweet
dumplings, an official said.
The new standard will eliminate the use of fillings that contain
pathogenic bacteria, said Cao Desheng, an official with China
General Chamber of Commerce, responsible for drafting the
standard.
An entire batch of food products will be labeled "Not Qualified"
if even a slightly strange smell, pollutant or microbe is detected
in one of its packets, he said.
That means the entire batch will have no chance of entering the
market.
The draft standard will also ask producers to spell out all the
ingredients used in a product, and give the physical, chemical and
hygienic qualities of the fillings.
The draft is seen as "necessary and timely" because fillings
have become an important part of the food industry and are big time
business now, he said.
For long, there have been calls for stricter control over the
quality of fillings used in food products. In the past few years,
several food scandals have involved stuffing.
For instance, media reports in 2001 alleged that the Nanjing
branch of famous food chain Guanshengyuan used leftovers from the
previous year as fillings for its moon-cakes. The delicacies are
sold during the Mid-Autumn Festival, which falls on the 15th
day of the eighth lunar month.
The scandal ended with the company's Nanjing branch applying for
bankruptcy in 2002. It also ruined the whole brand and dealt a blow
to consumers' faith in top brands.
The new national standard will ensure that such spurious
products don't enter the market in the first place. It covers a
wide range of food products, from stuffed breads and pastries to
ice cream and sweet dumplings, he said.
The only exception will be frozen dumplings -- their fillings
are not covered by the standard. Cao said that's because the
dumpling stuffing is "of various kinds and too complicated" and
"usually produced by the dumpling producers themselves".
"The draft has been submitted to the Standardization
Administration of China. We will conduct research in enterprises
and listen to different voices, and try to improve it so that it
can be published before the year-end," Beijing Daily
Messenger quoted him as saying.
(China Daily July 24, 2007)