The picture shows the gel-like transparent substance squeezed out from the head of a "gel-injected shrimp" purchased by a reporter from the Tianjin market. Xinhua News Agency release. The gel-injection process is unclear, and multiple institutions claim "unable to detect". Regarding the popular online news about "gel-injected shrimps appearing in Tianjin's aquatic market", reporters recently investigated multiple aquatic wholesale markets and community farmers' markets in Tianjin, discovering that these markets indeed sell "gel-injected shrimps". However, due to the unclear gel-injection process and complex origins, it poses difficulties for supervision and management.
"Gel-injected Shrimp" causes netizens concern
Recently, websites like China.org.cn and CRI Online have reported with pictures and text that "gel-injected shrimps" are flooding the aquatic markets in Tianjin, stating that unscrupulous vendors inject gelatin into the heads and bodies of frozen shrimps to increase their weight and improve their appearance. Netizens have condemned the illegal behavior of vendors, while more netizens hope that authoritative departments will clarify the "truth." A netizen from Tianjin said: "I urgently want to know two answers: one, is the injected substance harmful? Two, which department should I file a complaint with? After making more than ten phone calls and asking the National Food Testing Center, Aquatic Products Testing Center, Quality Technology Supervision Bureau, Tianjin and Hexi District Administration for Industry and Commerce, etc., I did not get any definitive answers!"
The rampant situation is shocking, vendors even claim "it won't kill people"
At 5 am on the 14th, reporters visited the largest aquatic wholesale market in Tianjin - the Wangdingdi Aquatic Wholesale Market in Tianjin. In many shrimp product wholesale stores, reporters found "gel-injected shrimps." These were frozen shrimps, looking fuller, with a whiter color. Their heads easily fell off when slightly squeezed, revealing transparent gel-like substances inside. One wholesaler said: "Injecting gelatin into the shrimp heads and abdomens can both increase the shrimp's weight and prevent the head from caving in or collapsing." But he insisted that the gel was not injected by him, "It might have been injected when the shrimp came off the boat, or possibly in some remote workshops in Tianjin."
Reporters then visited several other markets including the Fengying Comprehensive Market in Huayuan Residential Area, the unnamed road market in Wangdingdi Residential Area, and the Tongandao Vegetable Market, finding that all were selling "gel-injected shrimps." A female vendor told reporters: "This kind of shrimp has been around for five years." She claimed, "Gel-injected shrimps won't kill people; otherwise, the government would have banned them long ago."
The person in charge of the Tianjin Food Safety Committee Office, Li Zhiyong, said: "'Gel-injected shrimps' are not something new; they existed before and have been cleaned up." Deputy Director of the Tianjin Health Supervision Institute, Cui Chunming, said: "'Gel-injected shrimps' have become quite rampant recently." He said that in the past, the health supervision institute had the function of managing the market and conducted crackdowns as early as 2005.
Quality inspection institutions claim "unable to detect," regulatory gaps cause concern
Reporters bought two batches of "gel-injected shrimp" samples from two farmers' markets, trying to find relevant testing institutions to test what the "transparent substance" injected into the shrimp body was. However, multiple agricultural product quality supervision and testing institutions all said "unable to detect," stating that there must be clear testing items and objectives to conduct tests, otherwise without targets and standards, "we don't know where to start." But Cui Chunming said: "There is no need for testing; you can distinguish if it has been injected just by looking. Regardless of what substance is injected, it is not allowed; otherwise, it is adulteration and falsification, which is an illegal act." He said that currently, there are various types of gels, such as silicone, agar, and gelatin, and they come in industrial and edible forms. If industrial gel is added, it may contain heavy metals and carcinogens.
Director of the Key Laboratory of "Food Nutrition and Safety" under the Ministry of Education and Vice President of Tianjin University of Science & Technology, Wang Shuo, said that there is an urgent need for authoritative institutions to test the transparent substances injected into the shrimp body. "If it is edible gelatin, we can test its collagen protein content; if it is industrial gelatin, we can test whether its heavy metal content exceeds the standard."
Reporters successively called the quality supervision, industry and commerce, health, and agricultural authorities requesting interviews, either being told "not aware of the situation" or claiming "not within our jurisdiction." Even between two departments of the same unit, responsibilities were repeatedly pushed back and forth. "What substance is injected into 'gel-injected shrimps'? Does it constitute the production and sale of toxic and harmful food? According to Articles 33, 50, and 52 of the Agricultural Product Quality and Safety Law, the agricultural administrative department should conduct the testing," said Deputy Director of the Food Safety Supervision Department of the Tianjin Administration for Industry and Commerce, Cui Hongtao. He stated that the industry and commerce department's role is to investigate and deal with agricultural products that fail quality inspections as monitored by the agricultural department.
Experts believe that the difficulties in managing "gel-injected shrimps" reveal the problems in China's food supervision mechanism: multi-headed management, unclear division of responsibilities, leading to blind spots in supervision. There should be a greater emphasis on establishing accountability mechanisms. Wang Shuo said that the current "segmented supervision" is difficult to achieve seamless supervision, but China's food industry chain is too long, with many small enterprises and small markets, so it cannot simply copy foreign mechanisms. Food safety issues need to be considered comprehensively from economic, technical, and policy levels to fundamentally solve food safety problems. (Xinhua News Agency reporter Zhang Zewei, Mao Zhenhua, Ni Yuanjin, February 15, according to Xinhua News Agency, Tianjin)