Something stinks in fruit juice

A recent investigative report says several well-known fruit processing companies have been buying and using partly rotten fruits, which is both shocking and saddening, says an article on gmw.cn. Excerpts:

The report says several trucks full of partly rotten fruits were carried into the factories and probably used to make juice, and local residents in knowledge of such practice have long since stopped eating processed fruits or drinking packaged fruit juice made by the tainted companies. The report also says strict security systems protect the factories against investigative reporters.

The security staff know that reporters could expose the truth and, therefore, they try their level best not to allow reporters to enter factories. Many food processing companies organize "open days", allowing consumers and the media to take a tour of their factories in order to convince them of their clean operations. But for a long time many have doubted that in many cases such open days are an attempt to cover up their dirty deeds. And now they may prove right.

No law or regulation forbids food companies from buying partly rotten fruits. And even though they do so, it does not necessarily mean they use the rotten parts to process juice. Consumers have no way of knowing whether or not the juice they buy was made from rotten fruits. So they have to depend on supervision department to ensure that companies do not use rotten fruits to process juice and that they make their findings public.

Fruits are perfectly safe to eat after the rotten parts are removed. But only proper supervision can ensure that companies do remove the rotten parts before processing them into juice to reassure consumers that they are buying safe products.

(China Daily 09/30/2013 page9)