Consumers swallow organic food claims
By Mu Zi (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-03-15 02:11

Consumers are being warned to watch out for fake organic food, which
could account for about 10 per cent of all sales of "green" food in
the capital.

Food producers in China have to follow a stricter rule to use the word
"fresh" when advertising their products. [newsphoto]
Beijing Consumers Association, which has conducted a survey into
organic food, discovered much food labelled organic on sale in the
city was fake.

The association released the report on the eve of this year's
International Consumer Rights and Interests Day, which is today.

The survey found that, in a random selection of 268 goods labelled
organic, including rice, oil, eggs, vegetables and drinks, 25 samples
were counterfeit.

Some of the fake food is produced by companies that do not have
organic certifications, such as milk produced by a Heilongjiang-based
company and rice from a Hebei-based plant.

Some enterprises pasted "organic food" labels on food that looks
similar to genuine organic products, the association claimed.

According to food regulations, a company can only put an organic label
on its products for three years before its products need to be
re-examined.

The city's consumers association called on government departments to
beef up supervision of organic food, which is regarded as a safe
choice by consumers. They have been scared by numerous food safety
problems, such as the overuse of pesticides, growth hormones in animal
feed and unsafe food additives.

The release of the survey is just a small part of the various
activities that will take place to mark consumers' day.

In the past four days, personnel from the association and other
officials have been on the streets offering legal advice to consumers
about their rights. Experts were also invited to give help on product
quality.

According to statistics provided by the association, by the end of
last year, it had received more than 20,000 complaints from consumers,
97 per cent of which had been resolved, resulting in compensation of
more than 22.5 million yuan (US$2.7 million) for consumers.

The complaints mainly focused on three areas, including poor
after-sales service, which took up 40 per cent of the total
complaints; quality problems, accounting for 28 per cent; and disputes
over contracts, amounting to nearly 12 per cent.

Previously, most Chinese consumers silently tolerated violations of
their rights, blaming the situation on bad luck. But now, consumers
are becoming educated and developing a greater sense of
self-protection.

In another development, the Chinese Consumers Association yesterday
warned people who still use old-style water heaters to scrap the
machines because of safety risks.

The old gas-fired water heaters, which discharge waste gases directly
into rooms, can cause fatal accidents from carbon monoxide poisoning.

Statistics show that more than 1,000 such accidents happened last
year.

The country forbade the selling of old-style water heaters in 2000.
However, nearly 10 million such heaters are still in use around the
country.

(China Daily 03/15/2005 page5)