“If you leave meat unattended, rats will eat it”… SNS spread
Authorities “zero tolerance for actions that harm food safety”
Controversy continues over rat heads, urine, mouth bones, needles, bats, etc.
Anxiety grows over the successive hygiene issues
The food hygiene controversy in China continues. This time, a video of a rat running around the work surface of a hot pot restaurant and eating beef went viral on social media.
According to Chinese media such as Shin Kyungbo on the 29th of last month, the controversy began with a netizen’s comment posted on a delivery food platform the previous day. The netizen posted an article and video complaining about the sanitary conditions of a hot pot restaurant in the eastern province of Zhejiang.
The video shows a rat eating beef left on a restaurant workbench. A netizen criticized, “(The restaurant) left the meat unattended like this. I’m disgusted to death.”
The video spread through social media and caused a stir. As the controversy grew, local authorities announced that they had confiscated and discarded the meat from the restaurant in question and suspended business. He added, “Once the results of the investigation come out, we will handle them strictly in accordance with laws and regulations,” and added, “We will apply a zero-tolerance principle to actions that harm food safety.”
It is known that the restaurant has been operating as a franchise store for about three years. After the incident occurred, the franchise headquarters sent a warning to all stores and required them to carry out strict disinfection measures. They also announced that they are discussing punishment for the franchisees in question.
In China, a series of food hygiene issues have recently emerged and controversy continues. Last June, there was an incident where a rat’s head was found in food at a university cafeteria, and the school falsely explained that it was an duck’s head, but the authorities corrected it.
Then, in October, a video of an employee urinating on raw materials at a Tsingtao beer factory was released, shocking the public. Also, in November, a video surfaced of a butcher cutting lamb with his mouth, a broken needle was found in food at a university cafeteria, and a video showed that a foreign object presumed to be the body of a bat was contained in marathon soup.
Anxiety about food safety in China is expected to grow as sanitary controversies continue despite authorities’ threats to respond with zero tolerance.
Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.