Supermarket fruits hazardous
By admin on 2014-12-29

Supermarket food safety is again in question after Greenpeace China claimed strawberries containing excessive levels of insecticide are on shelves at one of Beijing's Ito Yokado supermarkets.

The Greenpeace Beijing office revealed on Monday - the International Day for Consumers' Rights and Interests - that 14 types of insecticides had been found in strawberries from the Xizhimen store of Ito Yokado, during a random test by the NGO.

Of the 14 insecticides, three were ranked as either extremely hazardous or highly hazardous by the World Health Organization, and one is forbidden in China.

Wang Weikang, a food and agriculture campaigner with Greenpeace China, said international supermarkets like Ito Yokado should take responsibility for their customers in China.

"Ito Yokado has developed a food quality system in Japan and made a commitment to their Japanese customers to cut insecticides in half.

But in China, even though we have negotiated with their Sichuan headquarters, they still haven't made a similar promise to our citizens," he said.

Wang said on Monday that food safety is a top concern of the public and international supermarkets shouldn't apply double standards dependent on the country involved.

"I believe a food quality system is a base to provide safe and healthy food and it will also improve the quality of their services," she said.

However, Li Zhisheng, spokesman of Ito Yokado Beijing, said food safety has always been their top concern, but the quality of food is reliant on producers as well as proper supervision from agricultural departments.

"Greenpeace ran the test secretly. I was not aware of it until reporters called me today. The reliability of their test is also pretty questionable. I cannot imagine how a Chinese farmer could be rich enough to use 14 kinds of insecticides on one strawberry," he told METRO Monday.

Li said his company took immediate action after learning of the claim.

"We will contact the suppliers of the strawberries and check their qualifications," he said.

In reply to the accusation of double standards, Li said some regulations in food safety laws in China are stricter than Western countries. As a global retailer, the most important thing is to abide by the local law.

Zhou Qian, a Beijing white-collar worker, was angry at the supermarket.

"Fruits are already much more expensive in the supermarket than from street sellers. I used to believe high quality came at high prices, but now I don't know who to trust," she said.