Recently, the Huainan Intermediate People's Court in Anhui Province pronounced a verdict on a case of producing and selling toxic and harmful food. From January 1, 2019 to October 21, 2021, the owner of the Irikawa Mao Belly Hot Pot Restaurant, together with the staff in the store, refined and processed the waste oil left over from the guests' eating into "saliva oil", which continued to be eaten by the guests for two years and ten months, and sold a total of 6 hot pot bottomsMore than 50,000. After appraisal and audit, the total sales amount of the hot pot bottom involved in the case was more than 1.7 million yuan.
In the end, 13 defendants, including Niu and Wang, were sentenced to 12 years in prison and fined between 1.25 million yuan and 2,000 yuan. At the same time, the judgment supported the civil public interest lawsuit filed by the Anhui Provincial Consumer Protection Association against the hot pot restaurant, Niu and Wang, and ordered the defendants to jointly and severally pay punitive damages totaling more than 5.12 million yuan in public interest litigation.
Saliva oil refers to the fact that the catering industry staff will eat the leftover leftovers of the guests**, skim out the oil in the leftovers, rinse them and reuse them. Because it has been mixed with the saliva of the guests, it is called "saliva oil".
This kind of behavior not only seriously violates food safety and hygiene regulations, but also violates the rights and interests of consumers.
The harm of saliva oil is first of all unhygienic, it will leave the saliva left by the consumer, and many diseases are transmitted through saliva, so there is a risk of cross-infection;Secondly, saliva oil is repeatedly boiled at high temperature, which may produce trans fatty acids and cyanide, which will cause serious harm to the human body with the accumulation of amounts after being eaten. In addition, if the saliva oil is not stored properly, hydrolysis and oxidation reactions may occur, becoming a breeding ground for aflatoxin growth.
A number of industry insiders said that the repeated prohibition of saliva and oil is due to two reasons - taste and cost.
Cost:
The high cost of using disposable pot bases" is the most common excuse used by these hot pot restaurants.
Authentic Sichuan-Chongqing hot pot base, the fat component is mainly butter. According to the current market, a good butter is at least a dozen yuan, or even more than 20 yuan, and the cost of a pot bottom may often cost dozens or even hundreds of yuan. Therefore, driven by interests, some businesses choose the "old oil" with lower cost.
Taste:
In addition, many of the hot pot restaurant operators involved argued that the use of "saliva oil" was not for profit, but to make the hot pot base taste better.
In the Sichuan-Chongqing region, saliva oil is also known as "old oil", which is characterized by a thick taste and mellow taste. The method is to precipitate the hot pot oil first, then salvage the oil slick, add water to wash the oil and remove the slag to take the oil, and then add spices, chili pepper, and pepper to enhance the fragrance and hemp, and refine it. For many years, old oil has also been known as the "essence" of Sichuan-Chongqing hot pot.
Some people in the hot pot industry said that the bottom of the red oil pot of hot pot is now made of "new oil", and "new oil" tastes no aroma, and the "old oil" extracted from the bottom of the red oil pot left by guests can play a role similar to yeast, and there is a special fragrance.
Since 2011, CCTV's first ** "gutter oil incident", waste oil, saliva oil, gutter oil and other waste oils have been banned from being used in the catering industry, but the relevant situation is still repeatedly banned.
In this regard, it is necessary to strengthen supervision and establish a more complete legal and regulatory system. Only by cracking down on illegal acts and increasing the cost of violating the law can businesses not easily touch the bottom line of the law.
At the same time, the catering industry should also strengthen the training and education of employees, improve the quality and food safety awareness of employees, and ensure that the rights and interests of consumers are effectively protected.