Guo Wanqing
Are the meat, fruits, vegetables, and aquatic products you buy fresh?Is the brightness you see in your eyes what you think it is?Have you ever been dazzled by the rows of warm red lights while shopping for food?Have you ever been in a situation where when you buy fresh products, they look fresh in the lighting environment at the time, but when you come home, they look like you have removed your makeup, and the color is dull and white?Today, let's go with the public interest litigation prosecutor to learn about those "new" things.
Dots with noodles"Small clues" lead to "big questions".
Recently, the Xiping County Procuratorate received such a clue through the "Yixin for the Public" volunteer procuratorial cloud platform, reflecting that the pink and fresh meat food in the supermarket changed after buying it home, and the color turned white, which was caused by the warm lights used in the supermarket to buy stale food.
This kind of "fresh lamp" that makes the food look fresher by adjusting the light color is like beautifying the food, forming a visual difference, which is easy to cover up food defects, affect consumers' color vision sensory identification, infringe on consumers' right to know, and easily mislead consumers to buy stale products, which has potential food safety hazards.
Behind a small "fresh lamp" is a big issue related to food safety, and it is related to the happiness and sense of security of the people. After receiving clues, the Xiping County People's Procuratorate visited and investigated a number of large supermarkets and farmers' markets in the jurisdiction, and took the initiative to find 11 problems, and found that many businesses used different colors of lighting fixtures in the fresh area according to the type of goodsAt the same time, the joint volunteers prepared and distributed more than 200 questionnaires on the understanding of market operators and consumers on the relevant regulations of fresh lamps and light color rendering index, and publicized the law through the content of the questionnaire, so as to strengthen the awareness of the rule of law of banning the lamp.
Investigate togetherProcuratorial Blue "joins hands" with the City Supervisor Blue
In order to find out whether the fresh lamps used by operators in the jurisdiction comply with the regulations and whether they infringe on consumers' right to know the authenticity of food, the Xiping County Procuratorate and the County Market Supervision and Administration Bureau conducted a visit and investigation on the use of fresh lamps after communication.
During the investigation, the technicians randomly selected fresh food stalls and used portable spectrum analyzers to conduct on-site sampling, and found that most of the light color rendering index used in the fresh areas of supermarkets and farmers' markets was between 40-50, which was generally lower than the national standard value of 80, and even the light color rendering index of the meat area of individual stores was negative.
According to the newly revised Measures for the Supervision and Administration of the Quality and Safety of Edible Agricultural Products in the Market (hereinafter referred to as the "Measures") revised by the State Administration for Market Regulation, from December 1, 2023, the sale of fresh edible agricultural products shall not use lighting and other facilities that cause significant changes in the sensory characteristics of edible agricultural products such as the true color of edible agricultural products to mislead consumers about the sensory perception of the goods.
Supervise rectification"Plugging loopholes" and rectifying "beautiful faces".
In order to effectively ensure the people's "safety on the tip of the tongue", the Xiping County Procuratorate issued procuratorial suggestions to the relevant functional departments in a timely manner, suggesting that they strengthen management, urge market operators to rectify the problem of non-standard use of fresh lamps as soon as possible, guide operators to operate in good faith and law-abiding, and do a good job in publicity before the implementation of the "Measures" to eliminate potential food safety hazards.
After receiving the procuratorial suggestions, the relevant functional departments set up a special work class, organized and carried out the special rectification action of "fresh lights", convened some market operators in the county to hold rectification meetings, ordered rectification of a number of fresh lamps in the agricultural product area, and printed and distributed more than 300 copies of publicity color pages to publicize the relevant provisions of the "Measures" to the society.
On December 6, the Xiping County People's Procuratorate invited three deputies to the National People's Congress and volunteers of "Benefiting the Public" to jointly conduct a "review" of the rectification situation in conjunction with the Market Supervision and Administration Bureau. After spot checks, the fresh areas of most businesses have been replaced with new national standard lighting fixtures with a color rendering index of more than 80, and the previous rows of warm red "beauty lamps" have been replaced with incandescent lamps with bright lighting. After two of the stores replaced the lighting fixtures that met the national standards, the light color rendering index was between the critical value of the national standard due to the addition of lampshades, and they were ordered to rectify on the spot, and the rectification effect was obvious.
The court's approach was affirmed and recognized by the deputies to the National People's Congress on the spot, indicating that the procuratorial organs have effectively plugged the loopholes from the source, and the rectification effect has been obvious, protecting the legitimate rights and interests of consumers.
Editor: Li Xiao Review: Li Junxiao.