Yesterday, the Fushun Health Supervision Office investigated the Fushun Weikang Tableware Disinfection Plant and issued a notice of suspension for rectification.
Special Reporting Team of the Paper - Photo
Yesterday, the Fushun Health Supervision Office investigated the Fushun Weikang Tableware Disinfection Plant and issued a notice of suspension for cleanup.
Black Mud in Disinfected Tableware
"The restaurant downstairs recently provided disposable disinfected tableware, and yesterday I found black mud inside the opened tableware." On December 6, Mr. Wang from Fushun reported this to our newspaper. On the afternoon of December 5, Mr. Wang discovered an anomaly while dining at a restaurant in Shuncheng District, Fushun.
"There were four or five rice-grain-sized spots inside the glass cup, and I initially thought it was a problem with the tableware itself. But when I wiped it with a napkin, all the spots came off." Mr. Wang said that he started feeling nauseous and his mouth began producing acid water.
Mr. Wang recalled that he immediately confronted the server, but the server remained calm, immediately replacing the set of tableware with a new one, and jokingly said, "You've won today by using two sets of tableware for one yuan." "I carefully examined this set of tableware then. It was labeled 'Weikang Professional Disinfection Sterile Packaging' with a contact number," Mr. Wang introduced. Apart from these, there was no production date or any inspection marks.
Disinfection Factory Refused Inspection
Based on Mr. Wang's report, the journalist contacted a male manager through the phone number left on the Weikang brand disinfection tableware packaging. Pretending to be a soon-to-open restaurant owner, the journalist expressed interest in visiting the factory to inspect the tableware disinfection situation but was refused.
The man first declined the journalist's visit citing his absence from the office and later offered to bring samples to the journalist's restaurant for discussion. "We are a regular company, quality is guaranteed, you don't need to come here. It's far away. If you want anything, I'll bring it over, if you like it, you can use it, if not, you can look elsewhere," the man said.
Squatting in the Toilet to Wash Tableware
After three days of investigation, the journalist finally located the Weikang tableware disinfection factory, which was located in the urban-rural fringe area of Fushun, in a small farmhouse surrounded by walls, without any distinctive signs. Upon entering the yard and lifting the door curtain to walk into the room, a pungent fishy smell hit the nose.
The first room had an area of about 50 square meters, where six middle-aged women wearing oil-stained coats were squatting on the ground washing dishes by hand. Basins of unwashed bowls and plates were soaking in black water, and the walls were covered with green moss and stains. Entering the next room to the left, under the table were six large buckets of unknown chemical solvents, with white buckets full of dirt.
When the journalist entered the small room, a middle-aged woman was washing tableware in the toilet. A man led the journalist to the tableware cleaning workshop. At that time, two staff members were drying small bowls soaked in chemical solvents with rags, and after being dried, the bowls were carried into the inner room, which was the sealing workshop. Two staff members were manually sealing the bowls during this process, while the professional disinfection machine remained turned off.
Issuance of Suspension for Rectification Penalty Notice
At around 2 PM yesterday, the journalist reported the learned situation to the Fushun Health Supervision Office. Party Secretary Wang Xuyang immediately organized enforcement officers to go with the journalist to the Fushun Weikang Tableware Disinfection Factory. The enforcement officers found during their on-site inspection that the ceiling of the tableware disinfection workshop was full of green moss and stains, the disinfection machine was not turned on, and the staff working in the workshop could not provide health certificates issued by the health department.
Regarding the six buckets of unknown chemical solvents placed under the table, the factory could not provide proof, only repeatedly emphasizing that they were national standard-compliant dishwashing detergents. "Our health certificates are all in our boss's hands, and he can't come back right now," a temporarily responsible woman around 50 years old said.
At around 4 PM, Director Xin Jun of the Food Hygiene Supervision Department Two of the Fushun Health Supervision Office issued a notice of suspension for rectification to the Weikang Tableware Disinfection Catering Center. Party Secretary Wang Xuyang of the Fushun Health Supervision Office introduced that during the city-wide random inspection of disinfection tableware in November, the E. coli level of the disinfection tableware produced by this enterprise exceeded the standard, and it was listed as an unqualified enterprise.
Restaurants Save, Customers Lose
During the interview, the journalist learned that among the tableware disinfection factories in Fushun, the lowest disinfection price for a four-piece set (one plate, one small bowl, one small spoon, one glass) supplied to restaurants was 0.3 yuan, and the price sold to diners was around 1 yuan.
An anonymous industry insider who accepted our newspaper's interview frankly admitted that due to fierce market competition, many tableware disinfection operators have cut costs by skipping the high-temperature disinfection machine process, resulting in the loss of the core factor of tableware disinfection. He analyzed that the use of disposable disinfection tableware reduces the operating cost of restaurants, but it's actually the customers who lose out.
Before the widespread use of disposable disinfection tableware, restaurants had to purchase large quantities of tableware and hire dishwashers, and these costs could only be borne by the restaurants themselves. After using disposable disinfection tableware, the cost of tableware usage is paid by the customers, and the tableware is provided by specialized cleaning companies, so restaurants do not need to bear any operational risks.
Under such profit-driven circumstances, whether the hygiene of disposable disinfection tableware meets standards or if it's a qualified product has become unimportant to some people.
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