In recent days, the botox contamination of Fonterra milk powder has caused many consumers to panic, and the foreign milk powder that had been placed on high hopes seems to have become less reassuring overnight. Less reassuring is the fact that botox, a hideous contraband, is not one of China's or the rest of the world's milk powder standards.
However, in fact, food safety and quality control is a systematic project. In addition to factory inspection, there are related procedures such as post-inspection, traceability and recall, as well as supervision by relevant government departments. From the disclosure, product traceability and recall by Fonterra and the domestic companies involved, such as Wahaha, Dumex and Coca-Cola, it can be seen that dairy products, especially milk powder, are not as unsafe as consumers think.
Many people are horrified by the name botox, but botox itself is so widespread in nature that it could be floating around in the air. Botulinum itself is not toxic, but there are four types of botulinum toxin that can produce botulinum toxin under certain anaerobic conditions, and the environment in which botulinum toxin is produced includes the intestines of infants. In theory, it is possible for botulism to follow the milk formula into the baby's intestines and produce botulinum toxin, which can cause poisoning. A lot of consumers may start panicking again, but the point is that the odds of this happening are very low. Botulinum thrives and produces toxins under harsh conditions: air isolation is strictly enforced; Appropriate water activity, nutrient conditions and ambient temperature are required. In addition, the main cause of poisoning is its toxin, which is not heat-resistant.
Generally speaking, according to the normal production process, it is very difficult for milk powder to be contaminated with Botox, which is why there is no regulation on the testing standards of milk powder in the world, and botox is not required to be tested. This time fonterra milk powder was contaminated with Botox mainly because a pipe was not thoroughly cleaned, which shows that the whole production system of Fonterra still has safety loopholes, and "safety" has always been fonterra's biggest selling point.
Food safety and quality control is a systematic project, and the public usually pay more attention to the factory inspection standards out of the psychology of prevention. But in fact, there are thousands of kinds of microbes and harmful substances in the environment we live in. When we leave the factory, each of them is set a standard and tested one by one. Theoretically, all harmful substances can be excluded. However, this is not realistic, and it will also add a lot of costs, which are ultimately borne by the consumers, so quality control needs to consider the balance of costs and benefits.
However, the lack of standards is not a mandatory project, for enterprises, does not mean that it can be abandoned. This botox incident was discovered in fonterra's post-test of the milk powder samples from the factory, which is part of the company's own quality control system. Standards are only used for testing limited indicators. To provide a more comprehensive guarantee for food safety, enterprises still need their own complete quality control system, which also includes traceability and recall once problems are found.
It is impossible to set a factory inspection standard for every small probability event, but it is possible for a small probability event to happen. Once it happens, in order to minimize the risk, the company must trace back the products produced before and sold which may have problems. This time fonterra revealed some milk powder could be botox after pollution, fonterra upstream and downstream in the industry of dumex, wahaha, Shanghai sugar and alcohol group, Coca-Cola, all revealed in a short time may be a problem of product batch, some companies have announced the whereabouts of the involved products, this is thanks to these enterprises in the orderly operation of a complete set of quality control system, not because a small probability events and make the enterprise to control the quality of "overwhelmed".
Since industrialization in food production, large-scale production, coupled with the continuous refinement, the division of the industrial chain, makes the falling cost and consumers to enjoy affordable food, this is what the ancients did not dare to hope - for example, before the industrial revolution, the milk is usually a noble can enjoy the luxury. But also bring some problems at the same time, is likely to be a small probability event, or a security vulnerability, will spread to a large number of products, will spread to other companies, even botox event is this time, the enterprise can't put an end to all security holes, for food safety control, the factory inspection is important, a post mortem, traceability and recall the same important.
In addition, strict government regulation is another sluice gate for food safety and a major driving force for companies to proactively disclose problems, trace back and recall. Botulinum event this time, is actually has happened in May 2012, involved most of the products have been sold, and for more than a year of time and related poisoning were not disclosed, but fonterra if attempts to cover up the past so, according to the laws of New Zealand, once found, will be facing top executives in jail, company fines, its fine enough to allow the bankruptcy.
