On e-commerce platforms such as Taobao and Pinduoduo, it has always won fans with “price advantage”. At the same time, public doubts arose one after another, and products such as “copycats”, “inferior quality” and “fakes” became the target of public criticism.
However, the loyal user base disagrees. They benefit from the convenience of the Internet and scavenge all kinds of extremely low-priced foods from Taobao, Pinduoduo, etc., which greatly improves the “quality” and happiness of life, but they often ignore whether this “low-priced food” has the basic conditions for “import”.
Then again, is buying low-priced food on Taobao and Pinduoduo really “unable to buy at a loss, unable to be fooled”?
In August 2018, Consumer Reports sent Mengzhihan beef jerky (spicy flavor) and duck neck with Yincheng Xiangwei sauce (fierce and spicy type) sold on Taobao to a third-party authoritative testing agency. and 4 products such as Xiangji Food Spiced Beef Grabs and Pipituo Spicy Sauce Neck sold on Pinduoduo.
The species composition of beef jerky (bovine origin, chicken origin, pig source, duck seed), as well as the hygiene level (total number of colonies, coliforms) and safety (nitrite) of the duck neck were compared.
The test results showed that both beef jerky were detected with “pork” and did not contain “beef” at all.
In addition, coliform bacteria were not detected in the two duck necks, and the total number of colonies of Pipito spicy sauce neck sold by Pinduoduo was 4200 CFU/g, which was slightly inferior.
The secret behind the low price: “Hanging beef to sell pork”
In domestic and international trade, adulterated and shoddy fraud of meat products is common.
Driven by economic interests, many unscrupulous traders make high profits by passing off cheap chicken, pork, duck or other animal meats as expensive beef. However, this “adulteration” behavior not only harms the rights and interests of consumers, but also disrupts the market order.
PCR technology based on nucleic acid is the mainstream technology for meat identification. Since molecular identification is based on genetic differences between different species, it is not limited to whether meat products have been processed or not, so it has a wider range of applications.
In layman’s terms, if beef jerky contains beef, “bovine-derived ingredients” can be detected, pork can be detected with “pig-derived ingredients”, and so on. However, the biggest drawback of real-time PCR is that it cannot be quantified. For example, it can detect pork in beef jerky, but it can’t detect how much it contains.
On the merchant’s promotion, Taobao’s Mengzhihan beef jerky (spicy flavor) claims that it “selects 1-year-old young beef hind leg meat and tendon meat”; Pinduoduo’s Xiangji Food Spiced Beef Grain claims that its “spices and rich sauce are fully integrated into the beef”, and the words reveal that its ingredients come from pure beef.
The journal purchased the above two beef jerky from Taobao and Pinduoduo respectively, and commissioned the laboratory to test their bovine-derived ingredients, chicken-derived ingredients, pig-derived ingredients and duck-derived ingredients.
So are these two low-priced beef jerky made from veritable “real beef”?
The test results showed that the two beef jerky labeled Mengzhihan and Xiangji Food were consistently detected with “pig-derived ingredients”, and neither of them was detected with “bovine-derived ingredients”, which can be determined that the two beef jerky do not contain “beef” at all.
On August 22, 2018, Pinduoduo released an open letter explaining the phases of the “doubles action”. According to the note, between August 2 and August 9, Pinduoduo forcibly closed 1,128 stores, removed nearly 4.3 million products, and blocked more than 450,000 links to suspected counterfeit goods in batches.
However, this magazine browsed the previously purchased product information again and found that the sales of this beef jerky are still booming, indicating that there are still many “fish that have slipped through the net” in Pinduoduo’s “doubles operation”.
In addition, this magazine also found that the Mengzhihan beef jerky (spicy flavor) sold on Taobao had a “wrong goods”. The baby details of the platform show that it is produced by “Xilin Golmeng Tari Aila Food Co., Ltd.”, but the beef jerky actually received by this magazine is produced from “Inner Mongolia Ulanqab Mengzhihan Food Co., Ltd.”, which shows that there is also a vacuum in Taobao’s supervision.
However, as of press time, this magazine unexpectedly found that the beef jerky sold on Taobao had been removed.
This magazine contacted Taobao customer service, and the other party replied: “The store has indeed not done it, as for whether it was forcibly removed or the merchant took the initiative to cancel, the specific reason cannot be verified.” ”
Nitrite was detected in 2 sauce duck necks, and “bacteria” was detected in 1 model
Duck neck is one of the traditional famous foods in Hunan, Hubei, Sichuan and other provinces, and has become popular throughout the country in recent years.
In fact, the technical threshold of marinated duck neck is not high, and the reproducibility is very strong. However, food safety has always been the biggest weakness of sauce duck neck, and it has been repeatedly reported that nitrite in sauce duck neck exceeds the standard and “bacteria” exceed the standard.
Nitrite is a coloring agent that not only makes the flesh bright red and fresh, but also acts as an antiseptic. However, excessive intake of nitrite will cause hemoglobin to lose its oxygen-carrying ability and cause “enterogenic cyanosis”, and it and amine compounds can produce carcinogens – nitrosamines under acidic conditions.
Data show that when the total amount of nitrite ingested by the human body reaches 0.2g ~ 0.5g, it can cause poisoning, and ingestion of 3g can cause death.
The national standard GB 2760-2014 “Standard for the Use of Food Additives” stipulates that the residual amount of sodium nitrite in sauce and marinated meat products ≤ 30mg/kg.
The test results showed that the Yincheng Xiangwei sauce duck neck (fierce and spicy type) and Pipituo spicy sauce neck purchased from Taobao and Pinduoduo were detected with nitrite, and their contents were 2.0mg/kg and 1.5mg/kg respectively, and neither of them exceeded the national standard limit value.
In addition, consumers should be moderate in their daily diet, for example, pickles, kimchi, salted fish, sausages, skewers and other pickles and processed meats that are generally high in nitrite content can be eaten as little as possible.
On the other hand, the neck of sauce duck has a high water content, and the temperature and humidity conditions of the production process are very suitable for the growth and reproduction of pathogenic microorganisms. Therefore, the hygiene of the sauce duck neck is also the focus of consumer attention.
The total number of colonies and coliform bacteria are two commonly used microbial indicators, the total number of colonies can be used to evaluate the hygiene of duck neck, and coliform bacteria can be regarded as indicators of food pathogenic bacteria.
If consumers eat duck neck with excessive microorganisms, it is likely to cause food poisoning, causing abdominal pain, diarrhea, vomiting and other symptoms.
GB 2726-2016 “Cooked Meat Products” stipulates that in the category of marinated meat products, the total number of colonies ≤ 10000CFU/g, and the coliform bacteria ≤ 10CFU/g.
The sauce duck necks purchased by this magazine are all vacuum individually packaged, what is its hygiene?
The test results showed that coliform bacteria were not detected in the neck of the duck with sauce, and the safety was high. In addition, the total number of colonies of Yincheng Xiangwei Sauce Duck Neck (fierce and spicy type) purchased from Taobao was not detected (<10CFU/g), but the total number of colonies detected in Pinduoduo’s Pipituo Fragrant Spicy Sauce Neck was 4200CFU/g, and the hygiene condition was slightly inferior.
It is worth noting that although the “bacteria” detected in the neck of this sauce duck have not exceeded the standard, there is still more than half of the gap between it and the limit value. However, since temperature has the most significant effect on microorganisms, if the sauce duck neck is stored in a place with a higher temperature, it may lead to a rapid increase in the rate of microbial reproduction.
Purchased from Pinduoduo’s Pipito spicy sauce neck
This journal suggests that it is best to eat duck neck with sauce “ready-to-eat”, and enjoy it in a short time after opening the bag, try not to rely too much on the refrigerator to “stock up”.
Consumption advice
Nowadays, with the popularity of the Internet era, consumers can easily buy goods from all over the country and even the world without leaving home. Low prices, easy availability and convenience have become the biggest driving force for netizens to shop on e-commerce platforms such as Taobao and Pinduoduo.
For the target customers, they feel a real benefit. However, there are still many safety risks in this “low-price marketing” commodity model, and consumers must not be “sloppy” when purchasing:
1. Check the transaction records and evaluations to preliminarily identify the quality of the goods;
2. More search, more search, more comparison;
3. Choose products produced by regular manufacturers;
4. Failure to trust the merchant’s promotion of the product;
5. Try not to buy food with ridiculously low prices;
6. It is better to buy vacuum-packed food;
7. Take a wait-and-see attitude and don’t buy too much at once;
8. Do not rush to confirm the order to ensure the need for after-sales service.
This article is from Consumer Reports
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