Thousands jailed for frying fried dough sticks!

There have been media reports before that thousands of people have been sentenced for "fried dough sticks" in six years

According to China's "Standard for the Use of Food Additives GB2760-2014", the residual amount of aluminum in food shall not exceed 100 mg/kg (dry weight), and fried dough sticks can use edible alum as fried food

Almost all the thousands of people were sentenced because of the excessive aluminum content in the fried dough sticks

Most of those sentenced to appeal

Earlier, at the International Food Safety Conference on April 19, Academician Chen Junshi, an authoritative food safety expert, mentioned in his speech, "In recent years, for the problem of excessive use of food additives, the 'public inspection law' in some places has intervened.

The editor found that most of the relevant rulings published on the "Judgment Documents Network" are second-instance criminal rulings

In June 2016, the Judgment Documents Network published a "Second Instance Criminal Judgment on the production and sale of food that did not meet safety standards by Lin Moujia and Lin Mouyi"

The judgment shows that since November 2013, the defendant Lin Moujia and others used food additives such as alum and soda powder to produce fried dough sticks in the XX store for wholesale and retail

At about 10:00 on December 22, 2014, the Lunjiao Police Station of the Public Security Bureau of Shunde District, Foshan City, in conjunction with the Market Supervision and Administration Bureau of Shunde District, Foshan City, inspected the XX store.

According to the inspection by Guangdong Product Quality Supervision and Inspection Research Institute, the aluminum residue of the finished fried dough sticks obtained from the XX store was 974 mg/kg, and the aluminum residue of the finished fried dough sticks obtained from the XX store was 446 mg/kg

In 2014, five departments including the National Health and Family Planning Commission jointly issued a document stating that from July 1, 2014, the state prohibits the use of acid sodium aluminum phosphate, sodium aluminosilicate and aluminum octenyl succinate starch in the production and operation of food additives.

According to the "National Food Safety Standard for the Use of Food Additives" issued on December 24, 2014 and officially implemented since May 24, 2015, the aluminum residue in fried noodle products shall not exceed 100mg/kg

Lin Moujia and Lin Mouyi were checked at the time between the announcement of these two regulations

In the end, the court of first instance held that the defendants Lin Moujia and Lin Mouyi violated the national food hygiene management regulations, produced and sold food that did not meet food safety standards, and the results of the inspection of aluminum residues in the seized fried dough sticks were unqualified, which was enough to cause serious food-borne illness.

Subsequently, Lin Mouyi refused to accept and filed an appeal claiming that he did not know that there would be aluminum residues in the fried dough sticks; there was no other evidence to prove whether there were aluminum residues in the fried dough sticks produced and sold at other times; it had never caused any food poisoning or food-borne illness; The fried dough sticks sold are all retail, not wholesale; he is a first-time offender and an occasional offender, and the sentencing in the original trial was too severe

Can a random inspection prove that all the fritters are unqualified?

The editor noticed that in the defense opinions of many people, it was mentioned that "a failure to pass a random inspection does not prove that the fried dough sticks produced since the incident were unqualified"

On May 5 and May 15, 2019, the Judgment Documents Network published two criminal judgments issued by the Intermediate People's Court of Handan City, Hebei Province

The two defendants, Ma Pingxiu and Fang Jizhong, used "potassium alum" containing "aluminum" to process fritters and sell them to nearby residents.
After testing, the fritters sold by both of them were "unqualified"
.

The People's Court of Qiuxian County, Hebei Province, the court of first instance found both of them guilty of producing and selling food that did not meet safety standards
.

Subsequently, Ma Pingxiu and Fang Jizhong respectively expressed their dissatisfaction with the verdict and appealed
.

The editor found that the defense lawyers of the two were Cao Pengbo, and their defense opinions were almost the same
.
The defense opinion holds that a single failure to pass a random inspection cannot prove that all the fried dough sticks have been unqualified by the defendant for many years, and there is no evidence to prove that one consumption of over-standard fried dough sticks is enough to cause serious food poisoning accidents or other serious food-borne diseases as stipulated by law; The announcement issued by the commission and other five departments on adjusting the use of aluminum-containing food additives has only prohibited the use of aluminum potassium sulfate in the production of wheat flour and its products since July 1, 2014, except for fried noodles.
The conduct should not be considered a crime; the original judgment found insufficient evidence of sales and the judgment imposed an excessively high fine
.

In the second-instance judgment, the fines for both were reduced to half of the first-instance judgment, and the other judgments upheld the first-instance judgment
.

The commutation of the sentence after the appeal is only an example.
Most of the appellants believed that the original sentence was too severe and requested a lighter commutation, and the second-instance judgment was upheld
.

"Relevant regulatory authorities do not have adequate publicity" is also a point often mentioned by the appellants
.

A case has been reported by the media before.
Chai Qinglin in Handan, Hebei, runs a breakfast stall that specializes in porridge and fried dough sticks
.
One day at the end of 2015, the staff of the Food and Drug Safety and Security Brigade of Fengfeng Mining District Public Security Bureau came to the booth to sample fritters
.

In the random inspection, the aluminum content of Chai Qinglin fritters was 1150mg/kg, which was 10 times higher than the standard
.
But he felt aggrieved: "No one has ever told me that people from the regulatory authorities often come to buy my fried dough sticks
.
" How much aluminum content in fried dough sticks is considered excessive
.

In 2018, Guangxi Light Industry Product Inspection Station released the article "Safety Investigation of Aluminum Residues in Nanjing Fried Tiao".
Among the 15 samples of fried dough sticks, only four samples had no aluminum residues detected, and four samples had aluminum residues lower than the national standard.
The maximum residues of the seven samples exceeded the national regulations by 6 times
.

In 2015, the School of Biology and Food Engineering, Jilin Institute of Chemical Technology also released the "Survey on Aluminum Content in Fritters in Jilin City", and nearly a quarter of the 41 samples exceeded the standard
.

A previous survey showed that the aluminum over-standard rates of fried dough sticks in Guiyang, Yuzhong District, Xianyang and Puyang were 100%, 98%, 88% and 51.
1% respectively
.

In these samples, the aluminum over-standard rate of fried dough sticks in street stalls was significantly higher than that in restaurants
.
The "Survey on Aluminum Content in Youtiao in Jilin City" pointed out that the main reason is that most of these individual stalls are made and sold, which is not conducive to supervision
.

The editor sorted out the cases related to the excessive aluminum content of fried dough sticks on the Internet in the judgment documents, most of which are criminal cases
.
Its routine operation is that after being investigated and punished, it is transferred to the inspection agency for prosecution, and the court makes a judgment
.

"If the standards are not clarified as soon as possible, it will easily arouse the impulse of law enforcement officers to punish administrative violations by criminal means
.
" A food safety expert who did not wish to be named previously told the media
.