The lack of current standards for beverages, identity and suspicion, food safety concerns

Three steps of a tea shop, a five-step beverage shop, and the streets of Shencheng, the current beverage shop uses a “multiple” to describe it is not too much. There are more drinks shops in the market. Food hygiene and safety make consumers less likely to eat in a cup of milk tea. Preservatives, sweeteners, colorants, trans fatty acids, and E. coli may be present. Some common-sense consumers know that if these additives and total bacteria are controlled within a reasonable range, they will be harmless to human health. However, where is this degree? Where are the standards?

The big chain also has a "condition"

The Consumer Protection Committee of the day before yesterday launched an “unannounced visit” to the city’s ready-to-drink market. In the three business districts of Shanghai, including Wujiang Road Pedestrian Street, Baihuan, and Daning International, 40 pieces of the 23 sales companies’ products were purchased. Samples of beverages were prepared, including 19 milk teas, 5 fruit juices, and 16 other flavored beverages. According to the characteristics of the manufacturing process of existing beverages, they were mainly targeted at the three “sensitive issues” of additives, microbes, and trans fatty acids of milk tea. Shanghai Food Quality Supervision and Inspection Station was commissioned for testing.

City Consumer Protection Committee Consumer Fingering Labor Jianhong introduced that these 23 sampled companies are large-scale catering or beverage chain companies, 85 °C, happy lemon, COCO milk tea, waga coffee, KFC, McDonald's and other mainstream brands Have a hobby, "has a certain sample representation."

The inspection results showed that the shops that were spot-checked had "conditions".

The detection of additives mainly includes additives commonly used in three categories of preservatives, sweeteners and colorants. In terms of preservatives, sorbic acid and benzoic acid are the most commonly used preservatives for foods. Both types of preservatives were not detected in milk tea and freshly squeezed fruit juice products, but in flavored beverages, 6 were found to contain benzoic acid, 7 The items detected contained sorbic acid, 4 of which contained both preservatives. Of the 40 samples, the use of sweeteners was within the standard range, and no abuse of food colorants was found in the testing of only the freshly squeezed fruit juices and other flavored beverages. However, some companies have responded to consumer demand by claiming that no food additives have been added to their products. However, during testing, some products still contain trace additives.

The trans-fatty acid test results showed that of the 19 milk teas sampled, there were 3 samples with trans-fatty acid content exceeding 1 gram and 8 samples exceeding 0.5 gram. Experts believe that this is due to the addition of hydrogenated vegetable oil to some teas. What is the concept of trans fatty acids exceeding 1 gram? The World Health Organization has suggested that the maximum intake of trans fatty acids in the diet should not exceed 1% of the total energy. In other words, if the average daily energy intake of an adult is 2,000 kcal, then the daily intake of trans fatty acids should not exceed 2.2 grams.

The biggest problem is the detection of bacterial populations and coliform bacteria. The person in charge of the Municipal Consumer Protection Committee told the reporter that of the 40 samples, there were 12 samples with a measured total bacterial count of more than 10,000 (cfu/ml), such as peaches sold by Tiantian Fruit & Fruit Bar (1288 Zhenguang Road, Baihuan B1). The total number of bacteria in the juice was measured at 72000 (cfu/ml); the measured value of sunrise pearl milk tea sold at Sunrise Tea (No. 198 at Wujiang Road) was 57,000 (cfu/ml); the street passenger (1288 Zhenguang Road, Bailian B1 The sales of watermelon ice juice measured 48000 (cfu/ml). In addition, there were 16 samples with an observed coliform bacterial count of 300 (MPN/100 ml) or more.

The situation of the existing beverage stores is worrying

If the products of large-scale chain brands are already like this, what would be the production of those “front-and-back-end” shops in the street? This has to make people put a big question mark.

The reporter learned from the Municipal Bureau of Industry and Commerce that in 2009 the Shanghai market had a regular business license and health permits, the number of ready-made teashops in current sales was about 2,000, and the sales of these stores exceeded 2 billion a year; In addition, the market capacity of on-site beverages produced and sold throughout the Shanghai market was conservatively estimated to exceed 4 billion yuan.

Although this year's data has not yet been counted, some industry insiders predict that the number of ready-made beverage outlets (including non-operating license stores) should have exceeded 10,000. As long as there is about 10 square meters of space, the cost of 6-100000 yuan can join or open a real-time beverage shop in Shanghai, coupled with low profits and high cost of drinks, it is easy to quickly recover the cost. Such a low threshold industry will inevitably lead to mixed media.

“The most worrying aspect of current beverages is that the total number of bacteria exceeds the standard.” An expert told reporters that bacteria exceeded their standards. First, environmental impacts, many existing beverage sales outlets are open, and bacteria in the environment can easily enter. Into the product. The second is the pollution of processing equipment and operators. The sanitation status will directly affect the quality of the product. Processing equipment will not be effectively cleaned and disinfected. The non-standard production process will cause a higher total number of bacteria. In addition, the vast majority of milk tea and freshly-squeezed fruit juice, raw material itself contains more bacteria, as part of the food raw materials are rich in dairy products and other nutrients, especially easy to cause the growth of microorganisms, if not used in the use of fresh fruits, such as strict Cleaning and disinfecting can also carry a large amount of micro-organisms, eventually leading to excessive bacterial production. It is reported that Taiwan's famous brand COCO milk tea broke the highest number of bacterial indicators exceeded 140 times this year.

The brand chain stores are also at least tidy and clean. If the small shops on the street do not pay attention to the safety and health work, what the total number of bacteria will reach is really worrying. At the same time, the expert also stated that irregular colorants are still present in non-standard small shops.

When will the standard come out?

If you give you two cups of milk tea, one cup of tea contains 10,000 bacteria and one cup of bacteria in another cup, which cup would you choose?

Most people will choose the latter, but one expert told reporters that he would choose milk tea with 10,000 bacteria: "Because I don't know what to do with the bacteria-killed milk tea. The expert explained that consumers need to look at the problem rationally and that bacteria are not all harmful, as long as it does not exceed one degree, it has no effect on human health.

But where is this degree? “At present, the state and Shanghai have not yet issued relevant standards for ready-to-use beverage products.” The person in charge of the Consumer Protection Committee told reporters that even the Shanghai test is a local standard in comparison with other provinces and cities, such as Zhejiang’s “DB33-533-2005. Sanitary Standards and Codes for Fruit Juices and Fruit Juices, Wuhan, China, JG4201T001-2009 Technical Specifications for Grain and Beverage Drinks from Fruit and Vegetable Juices. However, due to the fact that the microbial detection version and testing standards have been updated, the reference role of these local standards is extremely limited.