Spirulina products exceeding the standard of heavy metals, how to draw a full stop?

On March 30, 2012, the State Food and Drug Administration announced the results of the special supervision and inspection of heavy metals in health foods using Spirulina as raw material. The results showed that Kangsi Spirulina Tablets, Austrain Green Classic Spirulina Tablets, and Hong Yang Shen Spirulina 3 products were counterfeit health foods; Fujian Province Happiness Biotechnology Co., Ltd. produced Happiness Spirulina Tablets ( (Contrelis) The 20111214 batch of lead and arsenic exceeded the limit standard; the media reported that the green A brand spirulina extract, Tomson Becken spirulina tablet, and the gold Aoli brand Suda spirulina tablet and other products lead content The results of this supervision and inspection did not exceed the national limit standard. (March 30, State Food and Drug Administration website)

Previously, after the incident of lead contained in spirulina products was disclosed by the Xinhua News Agency, public opinion was utterly shocking. The health care products that were popular among consumers were actually lead--long-term use of lead spirulina may cause effects on hematopoiesis and lead to immunity. Low, anemia, or even kidney damage. Edible health products are intended for health care, health is not guaranteed, have been hurt, how can it be?

The truth is the most powerful weapon to clarify the fog. However, with the announcement of the supervision results by the State Food and Drug Administration, the public has not only gone out of the fog, but has become increasingly confused. According to the Xinhua News Agency's inspection results, among the 8 spirulina blue cap samples, lead levels in 6 samples were seriously exceeded, among which there were no lack of well-known brands such as “Green A” and “Tsinghua Unisplendour (Gold Aoli)” exceeded 80 %; "Tang Chen times health" exceeded 100%; "Contrelis" exceeds 820%. The result of the State Food and Drug Administration is that the media reported that the lead content of products such as Green A, Tomson Beijian, and Jin Ao Li brand did not exceed the standard.

One theory is that the content of lead is exceeding the standard, and the other is that the content of lead does not exceed the national standard. Both parties hold their own words. Who does the public believe? The general public is not a professional, but it is naturally impossible to tell which statement is reliable by the naked eye. One detail is that the inspection department of Xinhua News Agency and the inspection organization organized by the State Food and Drug Administration are all authoritative organizations. Why dispel public misgivings as soon as possible? This requires an authoritative department to take the lead to form an independent third-party inspection agency, randomly obtain samples from the market for testing, and absorb public participation. This will directly witness this special monitoring. In a nutshell, the authoritative results come from fair and transparent tests, and they come from scientific arguments that can withstand scrutiny.

Of course, it should also be noted that one of the test results announced by the State Food and Drug Administration is that the products of the Contress brand have exceeded lead levels, and the previous investigation by the Xinhua News Agency called Contrex “Contrelis” with excessive lead content. 820%. One detail is that Contrelis is a blue cap health product. What is a blue hat? In layman's terms, in the field of health foods, the blue cap is a pass, symbolizing excellent quality, which means that it is recognized by the competent authorities. How can Contrelis, whose lead content exceeds the standard, easily obtain the blue cap approval certification? The reason behind this is that there is a chain of interests from the reporting company to the intermediary agency to the approval department. Behind the approval of chaos, there is a potential for rent-seeking, and the "technical service fees" charged by intermediary agencies to reporting companies have a considerable portion of the "inspection" or "approval of rents" by the inspection or approval departments. "Only a regular point and a good relationship can be used at the crucial moment."

If a snake hits seven inches, if he doesn't care about the approval department, he can't control the intermediary agency. If he does not remove some of the approval staff's hats, the blue hat will come out to harm people. When it comes to approving chaos, we must mention the well-known Zheng Zhen case. During the period of serving as the director of the State Drug Administration, Zheng Zhen used his position and received requests for assistance. He sought benefits for eight pharmaceutical companies in the examination and approval of drugs and medical devices. Corruption involved was the right to use and refusing to approve. After Zheng Biao dismissed, the relevant departments reviewed the system’s failures, saying that “the mechanism for reviewing and approving the operation was perfected, the division of labor was reasonable, the duties were clear, mutual restraint, and mutual supervision. The implementation of the administrative examination and approval was open and the “sunshine” transparent examination and approval was implemented.” True, only the implementation of sunshine With transparent approval, the space for approving rent-seeking will be greatly reduced.

Statistics show that as early as 2010, China's health food market sales were close to 100 billion yuan. However, with the rapid development of the health food market, various problems in the health food industry are also attracting more and more attention. Although health products are not drugs, they are also related to public health. For this reason, the regulatory agency stated that the comprehensive improvement of health food products this year is a key task for food safety. Health care products should be severely punished for the problems, and officials involved in the problems should be severely punished. As the so-called blue hat that wants to contain restlessness, it is necessary to give power to the rent-seekers to remove their caps; to maintain the purity of the river in the health care product market, it is necessary to start at the source.