Steamed bread sold in the supermarket, the date is marked on the self-adhesive label.

Ink font on plastic packaging, wiped off with a wet paper towel.

Article/Film Our reporter Zhang

According to media reports, since May this year, Mengniu sales manager Wang in Yiwu to buy more than 5000 cases of expired Mengniu milk products at half price, the production date changed six months later sold to Yiwu and other places, then Wang was detained. Reporter investigation found that the public in the purchase of food based on the date of production is likely to be manipulated, and the supervision department of the date of food production marking method has not been clear provisions.

Public response: steamed bread shelf life written on the self-adhesive label

"Shelf life only one day of things, businesses will change the label the next day then sell it?" Mr. Xu, a citizen, found when shopping in a supermarket in Jinan that four steamed buns packed in plastic bags were in one bag. There was a self-adhesive label on the seal, which marked the packaging date accurate to the minute. The shelf life was one day.

On August 26, the reporter visited several supermarkets in the city and found that the steamed bread, baked bread, these pasta and bean sprouts, dragon fruit and other vegetables and fruits were packaged in plastic bags or plastic wrap, which marked the packaging date and shelf life.

"We have an advance estimate of the daily sales, and there will not be too much goods. Food that doesn't sell that day is handled internally." A staff member of the supermarket's food counter said that the internal processing is to buy the food and return it to the manufacturer. "But there will never be a case of replacing the label and putting it on the counter again."

Reporter investigation: Spray on the production date, gently wipe off

Reporter selected candy, pastries, popsicles, dairy products, meat products, biscuits and other common foods to do a survey, some of the big brands of food production is more in the form of laser printing or imprinting to mark the production date, the writing on the package is clear, firm, almost can not erase or modify.

And some of the brand awareness is not high products, the inkjet printing method is used to mark the production date, this way is not so reliable. The reporter bought a box of six packs of rose cake, the small bag packaging marked "20120816" production date, with a wet paper towel gently wipe, the black ink can be completely removed.

After the date of production has been erased, it is not difficult to spray on a new date. A reporter's search for "coding machine" on a shopping website produced results ranging from advanced laser coding machines costing nearly 100,000 yuan to manual coding machines costing tens of yuan. Some sellers also said that the purchase of the coding machine will come with a liquid to eliminate ink.

Ms. Zhao, who runs a packaging machinery sales company in Jinan, told reporters that large food companies are often equipped with laser coding machines for tens of thousands of yuan, and the font is firm and shows a sense of discontinuous particles. And some small and medium-sized enterprises because of the cost problem, the supporting is the inkjet coding machine, the expensive is thousands of yuan a. Because the ink adhesion is not strong, this ink jet font is easy to blur a touch, if the rosin water, banana water treatment, can be eliminated clean.

Supervision department: There are no hard and fast rules on the way to mark

Reporter in the supermarket investigation, the ink jet mark that is easy to erase has caused many people to question. "The date of production is so easy to erase, change, buy food expired really depends on the conscience of the business." A citizen who is buying yogurt said that if some bad merchants arbitrarily change the date of production of food, it is really difficult for customers to judge. She then rubbed the date on the yogurt in her hand before putting it in her shopping basket.

What do the regulatory authorities say about the date of production on food packaging? On August 27, a person in charge of the Jinan Bureau of Quality and Technical Supervision replied: At present, the regulations followed by the food packaging industry are April 20, 2012 began to implement the "pre-packaged food label General rules" (GB7718-2011), which the font on the package, the content have made detailed provisions, requiring that the production date of food must be clearly marked, shelf life.

The person in charge said that if the whole food label is made in the form of self-adhesive, including the date of "production" or "shelf life" and other date content, the whole self-adhesive affixed to the food packaging is in line with the regulations. At present, there are no mandatory regulations on the marking method of the production date, whether it is printed or imprinted, by the manufacturer to choose according to the production situation.

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