China's restaurants asked to list used food additives

Source: Want China Times  By Xinhua and Staff Reporter

China Thursday asked its catering companies to publicize the food additives they use in their flavorings, beverages and condiments, in the latest effort to crack down on illegal additive use and improve food safety.

The State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) asks catering firms to report information regarding the food additives used in their food to local authorities by the end of May this year.

In addition, the names of these additives should be clearly posted in restaurants for customers to see. Catering companies should also reply truthfully to any related inquiries raised by consumers, the SFDA said.

Chinese authorities recently vowed to intensify efforts to crackdown on the use of illegal additives in the country's restaurants because of the many recent illegal food cases.

The latest case is that a company used "lean meat powder," or ractopamine, in livestock to make livestock grow faster, a practice which is prohibited in China. Police in Hunan province detained sixteen people on suspicion of selling ractopamine.

"(Police) have detained 16 chief suspects in this case, which affects 16 provinces and municipalities," Xu Hu, a senior official with the Ministry of Public Security, told China Central Television (CCTV).

Luo Fan, a 34-year-old Hubei native, has allegedly spent 2.6 million yuan (US$399,830) on purchasing more than 2,000 kilograms of ractopamine since 2008. The additive was sourced from a manufacturer in Zhejiang and another in Tianjin, according to Hunan police.

Luo sold the chemical to factories in 16 regions, according to CCTV.

Police in March seized 420 kg of semi-finished ractopamine, 510 kg of raw materials and 27 machines that produced the additive in a workshop in Jiujiang city, Jiangxi province.

As a ractopamine manufacturer, Chen Qiuliang could make 200 yuan in profit by selling a kg of the chemical for 1,200 yuan. Luo bought the ractopamine from Chen and then sold it for 2,200 yuan a kg.

People will suffer from vomiting and diarrhea if they eat meat tainted with ractopamine.