Insecurity on Chinese Foods

Not only marine assertion or bird flu, threats from China proved to include foods, which had expired period of safety standard. A report of a TV station in Shanghai, which revealed rough treatment on processing chicken nuggets, shook Japan. The exporter, Japan McDonald’s, announced halting Chicken McNuggets in some shops of Japan. Before dividing the nation with personal persistence on security empowerment, attributing it to naval promotion of the neighbor, the Prime Minister of Japan needs to protect the people from harmful environment of imported food from China.

The report, brought by a reporter sneaked into the factory of Shanghai Fusi Food Co. Ltd., accused that the factory had hidden away from the eyes of inspectors from McDonald’s and used it after they had gone, or a factory worker dropped some beef putty on the floor and picked it up by hands. Japan McDonald’s sold chicken nuggets produced by Fusi in 1,340 stores in Eastern Japan, which amount to one fifth of all McNuggets sold in Japan. A retail store chain, Family Mart, also stopped selling Garlic Nuggets form Fusi.

The food company is doubted to have been fabricating expiration date for consumption, by mixing old and relatively fresh meat or disguising the date of productivity. It is likely that those manipulations were ordered by senior managers of Fusi. “No one will die by eating expired food,” told a worker of the factory, indicating low morality of the company. Shanghai law enforcement office arrested five of those managing staffs.

Fusi has been exported 6,000 metric tons of meat products to Japan a year, which symbolized Japan’s food dependence on China. Even how quarantine authority makes the best efforts, it can check only 2% of all imports. While cheapness is a crucial element for food companies to survive in these highly competitive markets in Japan, food safety could not fulfill demands of consumers.

As long as the government and food companies are in short of sufficient credibility, consumers need to be as wise as being able to distinguish safe foods from the dangerous. They have to realize that safe foods are never extremely cheap. They should think that legally required “expiration date” for tasting good, consumption or availability do not make sense at all. There are a number of retailers in Japan, not only in China, who fabricate those dates.

The Japanese need to make these food scandals opportunities to review their daily food habits, which have been highly affected by excessive sodium, fat or sweetness. When they realize that they do not need so much ingredients everyday, dependence on Chinese food will be eased.