"Devil's June" is a Japanese eel industry jargon, meaning that a series of ominous events always occur in the June before the annual Eel festival, which has a strong impact on the eel market, especially imported eel. Around June, people in the industry are always on edge, fearing a catastrophe. Let's review the history:
From 2006 to May, China exported 1,350 tons of live eel and 5,794 tons of roasted eel to Japan, all of which passed customs inspection. On May 29, Japan implemented the "positive list system", 7 violations of Chinese eel were detected in June, 17 were detected in July, and the export volume and price of Chinese eel to Japan dropped significantly after August.
2007-June, the US FDA announced the suspension of Chinese shrimp, basa fish, eel, forktail ð« and other five aquatic products until the importer can prove that these products are safe Japanese media took the opportunity to hype, led consumers into the misunderstanding, eel bore the first, "Chinese eel = dangerous food" fallacy widely spread, resulting in 2008 eel year Japanese imports of Chinese baked eel number dropped by 2/3, the price of Chinese baked eel is only equivalent to the same size, the same quality of Japanese baked eel 40%.
2008 - In June, some consumers gradually realized that Chinese grilled eel was cheap and good, and the sales of Chinese grilled eel in Japanese supermarkets and retail stores heated up. At this critical moment, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries announced the incident of fake origin eels, and the media hyped up for days to publicize the detection of antibiotics from fake grilled eels. Since then, the Ministry of Health and Welfare announced that malachite green has been detected in imported live eels. The Asahi Shimbun newspaper claimed that the Chinese eel-roasting factory buys raw materials for live eels from black farms. As a result, consumers are once again shunning Chinese eels.
Is Chinese food dangerous? What is the difference between Chinese eel and Japanese eel? "Actions speak louder than words." Let the facts speak for themselves.
Is Chinese food dangerous? According to the results of the customs clearance inspection of imported food released by the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare: In 2006, Japan imported 1.859 million batches of food, 199,000 batches of inspection, in violation of the "food hygiene Law" 1,530 batches, accounting for 0.1%, of which the pass rate of imported Chinese food is 99.4%, while the pass rate of imported American food is 99%, that is, American food is not safer than Chinese food.
The United States released the results of the FDA inspection of imported food from July 2006 to June 2007, and the number of batches violated was the highest in India, second in Mexico, and third in China. However, in terms of the proportion of violations in total imports, the Dominican Republic is the first, India is the second, Denmark is the third, Japan is the fourth, and China is the sixth, which shows that Japanese food is not safer than Chinese food.
China strictly checks the safety of eels! China has set extremely strict inspection standards for exported eel with reference to Japan's "positive list system", such as malachite green residue benchmark is 2ppb, AOZ is 1ppb, metronidazole is only 0.1ppb, and the lethal amount of the most toxic poison - potassium cyanide is 40ppb.
ppb is a unit of standard value, that is, one in 1 billion, what is the concept of one in 1 billion, that is, 10,000 tons of eel as long as it contains 1 gram of metronidazole is not qualified, Japan's national eel production is about 20,000 tons, if it contains about 2 grams of metronidazole, it is all unqualified. Mr. Yoshikawa Mitsu, a Japanese scholar, believes that according to the AOZ residue standard stipulated by the Japanese positive list system, eating 1 kg of grilled eel every day for 30 years will not damage health.
Chinese eels have been inspected 6-7 times from breeding to export, and more than 10,000 tons of grilled eels exported to Japan from September 2007 to August this year have successfully passed Japan's extremely demanding order inspection and passed approval. Japanese farmed eels only need to be inspected once a year. Matsuyeon, vice president of Jeon Eels, a Japanese company, believes that Chinese eels and Japanese eels are of the same quality.
Can Japanese eels feed themselves? Japan consumes 7-120,000 tons of eel every year, limited by natural conditions, the country can only produce about 20,000 tons, in 2007, Japan consumes 102,996 tons of eel, of which Japan's domestic 22,643 tons, accounting for only 22%; 63885 tons of Chinese eels were imported, accounting for 62%; Taiwan 16,469 tons, accounting for 16%.
In 2001, Japan imported 62,957 tons of Chinese grilled eel, which dropped to 40,299 tons in 2003 and 33,412 tons in 2007. From January to July 2008, there were only 11,435 tons, equivalent to about one-third of the 30,379 tons in the same period in 2007. In 2009, European eels were included in the scope of protection under the Washington Convention, and China's exports of grilled eels will be further reduced.
If there is no imported eel, the consumption of eel in Japan will fall by 4/5, the price will skyrocket, and it will become a high-end food that ordinary people can not afford, and the eel will gradually leave the dining table of the general public, and the eel culture will be difficult to sustain!
Japan's food waste is staggering! While developing countries starve to death due to lack of food, Japan, whose food self-sufficiency rate is only 39 percent, is under the spotlight for wasting a lot of food. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and the Environment, about 40% of household waste is food residue, of which about 6% is uneaten food, 3% is used for feed, and the rest is buried or burned. The amount of food wasted every year reaches 6 million tons, and the trend is increasing year by year.
The eels that Japan buys from abroad at high prices are subject to strict import monitoring, and if they exceed the standard, they are destroyed or returned (Japan recently destroyed grilled Chinese eels containing trace amounts of residue). It must be pointed out that the drug residue benchmark set by Japan is far below the level of harm to health, and even if it exceeds the standard, it will have no impact on human health. If Japan raises the import threshold to exclude imported food, food prices will be higher and higher, and Japanese consumers will suffer.
Recently, Japanese supermarkets and stores gradually realized the importance of imported eel, resumed the sale of Chinese grilled eel, the industry called for, should seize this opportunity to promote promotion in Japan in the fourth quarter to correct the name of Chinese eel!
