China's Dairy Industry Encounters Challenges Dairy Safety Combats Consumer Confidence

Recently, as Mengniu’s "toxic" milk was detected by the AQSIQ, the issue of China's dairy products was again pushed to the cusp.

In 2011, it was supposed to be the year when China's dairy industry was reborn and devoted itself to quality and efforts to restore. The relevant government departments also issued a series of regulatory measures to raise standards and strengthen supervision. Consumers thought that China's dairy companies could completely “wash their face” and produce products that assured the common people. However, it is regrettable that in this market, the shortcomings of long-term accumulation have continued to be exposed, and China's dairy industry is still being questioned continuously throughout the year.

Experts bombarded dairy industry standards as the lowest standard in the world, issued documents to authoritative media and questioned the development of new standards in China's dairy industry, and went to Mengniu Dairy (Meishan) Co., Ltd. to detect aflatoxin M1 exceeding the standard for a batch of products. 140% of China's dairy products and dairy products hit consumer confidence again and again.

Dairy experts bombard new standards

On June 15th, the discussion on the new standards of China's dairy industry began to waver again.

Wang Dingmeng, chairman of the Guangzhou Dairy Industry Association, shelled the Chinese national standard for raw milk at the industry conference as "the worst in the world and a shame for the global dairy industry." He also said that "Chinese raw milk standards have been kidnapped by large companies that produce ordinary milk." On June 26th, Wang Dingmiao once again questioned: “The milk protein level under the new standard is very small. It may be better to drink boiled water than a high level of bacteria. Consumers spend money, they are not given proper nutritional returns, and they also damage health. ".

Wang Dingmian believes that China's new dairy industry standard is the worst in the world, mainly reflected in the "total bacterial count" and "protein content" two indicators. Before 2010, the standard for the purchase of raw milk in China was no more than 500,000 bacteria per milliliter, and the minimum protein content was 2.95 grams per 100 grams. The newly revised standard in 2010 increased the total number of microbicides per milliliter to 2 million, and lowered the minimum amount of protein per 100 grams to 2.8 grams.

The protein content of the new standard is far below the standard of 3.0 grams in the developed countries. After the total number of colonies has been relaxed by 3 times, it is 20 times that of the United States and the European Union (100,000).

In Wang Dingmian's view, although the protein was only 0.15 grams less than the original standard, the nutritional value was greatly reduced, and it was unable to meet the nutritional needs of consumers. Of the 2 million bacteria, there are pathogens, in addition to lactic acid bacteria and yeasts. The higher the number of bacteria, the more the secretory products of pathogenic bacteria remain in the milk, which is harmful to human health. Although the bacteria are not high enough to immediately make people sick or dead, there may be potentially invisible suicides that you cannot see. Very few proteins, so high bacteria, might as well drink boiled water.

Wang Dingmian also pointed out that it is not very difficult to raise standards. For example, raising protein does not require much difficult technology. As long as dairy cows are provided with adequate and high-quality feed, protein indicators will immediately go up. The same is true for the total number of bacteria. Even small-scale free-range households, if done well, can control the total number of bacteria below 500,000 per milliliter, just like a large-scale dairy farm.

Shortly after Wang Dingmian questioned the new national standard of the dairy industry, some dairy enterprises also stood up to speak. Guo Mingheng, president of Bright Dairy, said on July 3 that the Chinese raw milk standard is not only the lowest in the world in terms of the total number of bacteria and protein content, but also “does not even require” antibiotics, nitrites and other indicators.

Guo Benheng said that using such a low standard to produce advanced products cannot be achieved at all. “Garbage produces garbage.”

The remarks of the two people once again raised questions about the Chinese dairy industry by the media and the public. However, because there is no position of authoritative departments, the discussion of this matter has finally come to nothing.

Until the end of November, an article published by the People's Daily exposing the new national standard formulation process for the dairy industry once again pushed the new national standard of the dairy industry to public view.

Authoritative media exposing unspoken rules

On November 28th, the People's Daily article “Who Is Formulating Food Safety Standards — Experts Describe the New National Standard of Dairy Products”, which quoted participation in the formulation of standard experts, “I have not understood yet, and repeatedly discussed and formed the draft for submission. Why are some of the key criteria eventually overturned?" "I don't have anything to say now." "What's the use?" The article questioned whether the new national standard was "kidnapped" by some domestic dairy companies.

After the "melamine incident," it has become a consensus to reformulate the national standards for dairy safety. In December 2008, the Ministry of Health took the lead, together with the Ministry of Agriculture, the National Standards Committee, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, and the China CDC, the Light Industry Federation, the China Dairy Industry Association, and China Milk. Industry associations and other units established a coordination group to integrate and improve the national standards for dairy safety.

The “Administrative Measures on National Food Safety Standards” adopted in September 2010 stipulated that the Ministry of Health shall be responsible for the preparation (repair) of national standards for food safety. The Ministry of Health organizes the establishment of a food safety national standards review committee to review the draft national standards for food safety.

According to the People's Daily, in the process of formulating the new dairy standard, some participating experts stated that “the internal draft report indicated that the drafting unit of the Pasteur’s Milk Standard was the Mengniu Dairy Group. The raw milk standard was drafted by Yili Group. Yogurt standards were drafted by the Bright Group."

At the most critical meeting, under the leadership of several dairy experts, a standard of no more than 500,000 raw milk per milliliter of raw milk and no less than 2.95 grams of protein per 100 grams of raw milk was agreed to form a final draft. However, in the program officially announced in March 2010, the number of colonies per milliliter was relaxed to 2 million and the protein was reduced to 2.8 grams. As to which part of the review draft was changed, and why the changes were made, the experts who participated in the standard formulation of the interviewee were not clear.

Regarding the final standard of overturning 500,000 raw milk colonies and 2.95 grams of protein, some participating experts have asked for advice. "It is said to be the result of the coordination of the various ministries. We do not know how to coordinate with us."

Since then, on the issue of the new national standard, it has received a new round of media attention and coverage. Finally, the Ministry of Health came forward to explain that the introduction of the new national standard to a certain extent is to take care of the interests of dairy farmers and the Ministry of Agriculture. However, until today, the minutes of the meeting, at which time standards were set, were still not announced.

The credibility of Chinese dairy products in the eyes of consumers is once again affected.

Mengniu Dairy reproduces toxic milk

The standard was questioned for less than a month. Mengniu Dairy's milk was once again a scandal, further stimulating Chinese consumers' trust in dairy products.

On December 24, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of the People's Republic of China issued an announcement stating that in a recent inspection, a batch of products produced by Mengniu Dairy (Meishan) Co., Ltd. was found to have exceeded 140% of aflatoxin M1. What is more worrying is that aflatoxin is not a mandatory inspection item for milk factories, but it is just a sampling project.

Aflatoxin is a secondary metabolite of mold. In 1993, it was designated as a Class 1 carcinogen by the World Health Organization’s Cancer Research Institute. On December 26, Mengniu explained that the reason for the excessive detection of aflatoxin was that the feed consumed by dairy cows had deteriorated, which in turn led to the excessive number of raw milk.

Aflatoxin mainly damages the liver, has a strong carcinogenicity, and can cause liver cancer and even death in severe cases. It is a highly toxic and highly toxic substance. At present, the limit for aflatoxin M1 in raw milk and dairy products in China is 0.5 μg/kg, and aflatoxin B1 in food is 10 μg/kg.

Ji Xiaodong, director of media relations at Mengniu Group, stressed that aflatoxin is a product that is ubiquitous in nature. The result of Mengniu's detection has exceeded the standard, rather than added. The consequences are not as serious as the public thinks.

However, some experts believe that it is not uncommon for aflatoxin to appear in milk sources. What really needs to be reconsidered and summarized is why companies have not discovered it.

Some analysts believe that after three years of the melamine incident, the Chinese dairy industry is gradually recovering, and major companies have accelerated their expansion. In 2011, both the purchase price of raw milk and the total amount of dairy products exceeded the level before the melamine incident. The dairy giants are expanding throughout the country, which is likely to lead to their management is difficult to keep up.

“We solemnly apologized to consumers across the country!” On December 25, Mengniu issued two “condition notes” on its official website and said, “Since the batch of products was not released at the time of sampling, the company will immediately All products were sealed and destroyed to ensure that no problematic products flowed to the market. At present, all products that Mengniu sells in the market are qualified products."

After the incident, some dairy farmers said in an interview with the media, “After the melamine incident, companies had to be stricter when they collected milk, but they were not so strict in the recent period and their milk requirements were not as high as before.”

Prior to this, Fang Zhouzi, an anti-counterfeiting expert, once stated that the key to rebuilding consumer confidence in China's dairy industry lies in strengthening the punishment, and it must allow the illegal companies to pay a certain price. Our reporter Sun Xibao

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