赣州市赣之旅旅行社:为什么中国一直在食品安全问题上艰难行进

墨水，染色剂，漂白剂，蜡以及有毒的化学成份：这只是最近在中国生产的食品里发现的一部分成分, 尽管政府承诺要打击有毒食品，但食品安全问题仍引起了人们的恐慌。

Why is China having such trouble making its food safe? 

While China is no stranger to food scandals, a spate of food contamination cases brought to light over the past month has been shocking even to the most jaded of observers here. Over the past few days, health authorities in the southern province of Guangdong shut down 17 noodle makers after they were discovered mixing ink and wax to their dough. Meanwhile, over the weekend, nearly 300 people in the city of Changsha were reportedly sickened after eating meat contaminated with the banned “skinny meat” additive clenbuterol, the subject of a meat industry crackdown in March. 

为什么中国在食品安全上接连不断地出问题？2

尽管中国的食品安全丑闻已经屡见不鲜了，但大量的食品污染的案子在过去几个月一下子被公诸于众，仍然让那些已经见怪不怪的旁观者吓了一大跳。过去几天里，广东省卫生部在检查出掺杂墨水和蜡的面后，关闭了17家面条厂商。与此同时，有报道称周末长沙市有近300人因食用了含有禁用添加剂瘦肉精（即含有双氯醇胺）而中毒。三月份一家被有瘦肉精问题的企业已经被查处。

In perhaps the most bizarre case, also in Changsha, a number of consumers earlier this month walked into their kitchens at night to discover their store-bought pork was glowing in the dark. 

这其中最匪夷所思的事情，也是在长沙，本月早些时候，有一些消费者夜里进厨房，居然在黑暗中发现他们从商店买回来的猪肉会发光。

Beijing has struggled with food safety for years. The problem appeared to come to a head in 2008, when milk tainted with the industrial chemical melamine killed at least six children, sickened tens of thousands of others in 2008 and appeared to shock the government into taking decisive action. But the melamine eventually reappeared in the Chinese food supply, along with a host of other chemicals and illegal additives, leading many observers to wonder why China can’t seem to solve such a fundamental problem. 

就食品安全问题，北京已经整顿几年了。这个问题最初是在2008年引起足够重视的。2008年牛奶里含有大量工业化学物质三聚氰胺，导致至少6名儿童死亡，上万名儿童染病，震动了政府，采取果断措施。但目前三聚氰胺又重新出现在中国的食品供应中，并且伴随着其它化学物质和非法添加剂。这让很多旁观者疑惑为什么中国不能解决这个基本问题。

One of the biggest issues is the drive to make a buck at any cost, says Lester Ross, a Beijing-based attorney with U.S. law firm WilmerHale. Some companies see that by using additives, they can cut overhead costs or boost profit margins, and they merely aren’t thinking about the affects the additives will have on consumers, Mr. Ross says.

最主要的原因是商家的利欲熏心，美国WilmerHale律师事务所驻北京律师Lester Ross说。一些公司认为通过使用添加剂，他们可以降低成本，或提高利润，他们根本没有想过这样做对消费者有什么样的影响。Ross 说。

The answer to that, according to Mr. Ross, is an education blitz. China has the ability to plaster its subways, bus stations and even television screens with messages and advertising that lets all people know the dangers involved using chemical additives in food. 

Ross律师说，广告的宣传教育可以解决这个问题。中国可以在其地铁，汽车站，电视广告和信息中进行宣传，告诉大家在食品中使用添加剂有多么危险。

Local media reports of illnesses related to chemical consumption have helped, Mr. Ross says. A flood of news stories in recent days have informed Chinese consumers that meat containing clenbuterol may be leaner, but it may also cause headaches, nausea, and heart palpitations, while vegetables with sodium nitrite may grow faster, but they can also cause cancer. 

当地媒体的报道中，应该把疾病和化学添加剂关联起来。 Ross 律师说。最近大量的报道似乎告诉了中国消费者，食用含有瘦肉精的肉，可能会让你变得更瘦，但其实它也会导致头疼，呕吐，心悸。而食用含有亚硝酸钠的蔬菜帮你长个，但也会导致癌症。

In a push for greater clarity, China’s Ministry of Health is planning to revise and make public its list of legal food additives by the end of the year, while also publishing a black list of illegal additives, the state run China Daily reports. 

为了更加透明化，中国的卫生部计划在今年年底前修正并公布合法使用的食品添加剂，并同时公布非法食品添加剂清单。中国日报报道。

But education is only part of the problem. Another issue, according to Mr. Ross, is that there are too many cooks in the kitchen — or rather too many bureaucracies handling food safety. The Ministry of Health is the lead agency on food safety issues, he explains, but the State Administration for Industry and Commerce is also involved, as are the State Food and Drug Administration and the Ministry of Agriculture. 

但是教育只能解决一部分问题。根据 Ross的说法，另外的问题是“三个和尚没水喝”--太多的部门插手食品安全管理问题。中国卫生部在是食品安全问题的主要负责机构，但是中国工商局，中国食品药品管理局以及农业部也都参与其中。

Struggles with food safety are not a specifically Chinese problem. Many countries, including the U.S. and Japan, have gone through similar growing pains in the food industry, says Wu Ming, a professor at Beijing University’s school of public health. 

食品安全问题不是中国特有的问题。许多国家包括美国和日本，也都在食品领域经历过痛苦的成长。北京大学公共卫生系教授吴明说。

Sanitation and contamination issues permeated the food manufacturing and processing U.S. in the late-19th century. As China law scholar Stanley Lubman recently noted, it wasn’t until 1906, when Upton Sinclair published “The Jungle,” a book that unveiled the horrific standards of meat-packing plants of Chicago, that the U.S. began to wake up to its food safety problems. 

19世纪末，卫生和污染问题渗透在美国食品生产和加工环节。就像中国法律学者Stanley Lubman 最近指出的那样，直到1906年，当厄普顿·辛克莱的揭露芝加哥恐怖的肉制品生产工厂的《丛林》一书发表后，美国人才惊醒，开始重视食品安全问题。

The big difference between the U.S. and China is size, Ms. Ming says, adding that the quantity of companies involved in China’s food industry will make for tougher regulatory obstacles.

中国与美国最大的不同之处在于数量，规模上。明教授说，中国食品行业的公司数量使得监管起来更加困难。

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“It’s impossible to lessen such problems overnight,” Mrs. Ming said. “It will take many years.” 

“要想一夜之间就解决这些问题，是不可能的”，明女士说，“这需要花上几年的时间。”