The recent formaldehyde-laden cabbage scandal that has shocked the entire internet is truly chilling.
In Kangbao County, Zhangjiakou, Hebei Province, some buyers dipped Chinese cabbages in formaldehyde solution to preserve them during long-distance transport. The pungent smell of the chemical was suffocating even through a screen. These formaldehyde-soaked cabbages were originally planned to be transported in large quantities to Anhui, Jiangsu , and other places, ending up on people’s tables. After the incident was exposed, multiple departments intervened urgently, the people involved were detained, and various places conducted overnight investigations to trace the source, seal off and sample the cabbages for testing. The People’s Daily bluntly stated that this matter was egregious and utterly absurd .
This incident exposed the hidden chaos in the circulation of agricultural products and raised a question that countless people want to ask: Who should safeguard the bottom line of food safety?
What’s even more poignant is the stark contrast.
On one hand, there is the chaotic food safety situation that endangers the health of millions of people : unscrupulous merchants, for the sake of huge profits, disregard the lives and health of the public and abuse prohibited additives in vegetables. The industrial chain is hidden, illegal operations are repeatedly prohibited but not stopped, and there are obvious loopholes in the source supervision, which endangers the food safety of the whole people.
On the other hand, there is excessive and harsh control over ordinary people : street vendors work hard from dawn till dusk to earn money, operate in compliance with regulations and sell with integrity, but they often face strict inspections, expulsions and rectifications, and their small stalls are repeatedly restricted and controlled.
The real food safety hazards are hidden in the fields, warehouses, and cold chain distribution, in the unseen loopholes in the industrial chain, yet some regulatory efforts are focused on ordinary people struggling to make a living at the bottom of society.
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We never oppose standardized urban management; everyone desires a clean and orderly cityscape. However, the original intention of management has never been to make things difficult for ordinary people, but rather to protect them .
Ordinary people set up stalls to sell fresh fruits and vegetables and home-style snacks , earning money with their own hands. They don’t steal, rob, or harm others. Even if their stalls aren’t perfectly tidy, it only affects the details of the city’s appearance. But when formaldehyde-treated cabbage and problematic ingredients enter the market, they poison the elderly, children, and countless households, breaching the bottom line of people’s livelihood and safety.
What the public is truly anxious about is never the roadside vendors, but the unknown risks on the plate .
We are not afraid of the lively atmosphere on the streets, but we are afraid of hidden dangers on the dining table; we are not afraid of street vendors occupying the road, but we are afraid of unscrupulous merchants running rampant. Compared to regulating ordinary people who are trying to make a living, the public needs strict, thorough, and unwavering food safety supervision.
In this formaldehyde-contaminated cabbage incident, the three departments acted swiftly and strictly, tracing the flow of the cabbage and conducting a comprehensive investigation, demonstrating the strength of the crackdown on such irregularities. However, it is hoped that this is not a short-term attempt to quell public outcry, but rather a genuine return to the core focus of food safety supervision .
Regulatory efforts should not be wasted on driving away people who make a living by setting up stalls, but should be focused on thoroughly investigating the source of disorder, plugging loopholes in the distribution process, and severely punishing unscrupulous merchants .
Leaving aside the hardships of those struggling to make a living, safeguarding the safety of millions of dining tables—this is the original aspiration and bottom line that public welfare supervision should uphold.
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