"Nowadays people have no conscience, and they even use plastic to make seaweed!" ... Since mid-February this year, a number of Revelations about the seaweed industry have continued to ferment online.

Reporter saw in one of the videos, a middle-aged woman while the "A wave" brand of seaweed shredded soaked in water, while claiming to smell a smell, "can not be pulled open, tear not broken, this must be made of waste black plastic".

Although the manufacturer issued a clarification saying that it had never produced the so-called "plastic laver" and announced the test results, the speed and negative impact of the rumor spread exceeded the expectations of Li Zhijiang, general manager of A Yibo Food Co., LTD.

"Now dozens of phone calls are made to the company every day, involving complaints, cancellations of orders, removal of products from shelves, and even insults that our company has no conscience." Li Zhijiang told reporters that in order to do a good job of explaining the work, the company temporarily installed two hotlines, and arranged special personnel to answer and explain.

Li Zhijiang said that affected by the rumors, the number of orders has declined significantly.

Not only a wave of food Co., LTD., a number of people involved in the rumor storm in Fujian Jinjiang seaweed business person confirmed to reporters, products in some chain supermarkets were forced off the shelves, many dealers asked for returns, economic losses.

Public information shows that laver is divided into altar laver and striped laver, Jinjiang is one of the largest altar laver processing and production bases in Fujian province and even China, processing and sales of more than 40,000 tons of laver, with an output value of more than 2 billion yuan.

"The purpose of counterfeiting is nothing more than to profit, but the value of laver itself is not high, and the price of recycled plastics has been rising. Taking into account the time and raw material costs of recycling bags, artificial crushing, compression processing and other processes, it is simply impossible for businesses to choose to do so." Chen Bin, head of Sanyuan Food, said that plastic and laver have completely different tastes and are easy to distinguish when eating.

"Affected by the growth period, the quality of laver is also different, and the last one picked is called" weishui laver "." Li Yongzhong, general manager of Xian Zhihui Company, told reporters that such laver is often not good to chew, but its toughness is also far lower than that of black plastic bags, and there is a world of difference in smell and taste, which is impossible to be confused.

After the incident, Jinjiang City seaweed processing industry Association on behalf of more than 20 member enterprises in Jinjiang City publicly issued a statement, saying that "some people or for some purpose, through wechat, Weibo and other platforms to release suspected violations of the seaweed industry video, malicious fabricating" seaweed is made of plastic "and other untrue content, has been found to have more than a dozen versions, At present, it is still shooting and uploading, seriously misleading consumers, causing consumer panic and bad social impact."

Since then, Jinjiang City Market Supervision Administration also quickly organized a special inspection of laver, for the "plastic laver" rumor incident affected laver companies to carry out on-site sampling, through the on-site inspection, no enterprise doping the use of plastic or plastic products phenomenon.

A number of laver business owners told reporters that during this period, there were strangers who called anonymously, saying that "we should transfer tens of thousands of yuan of honoraria to the designated account, otherwise continue to upload videos."

It is understood that at present, the relevant enterprises, distributors and supermarkets have reported to the public security organs. According to the report of the Fujian Aquatic Products Processing and Circulation Association, affected by the rumors, the seaweed industry in the province is conservatively estimated to lose tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of yuan.

Reporter with "laver + plastic" as the keyword in the Internet search noted that the "plastic laver" rumor incident is not new, in 2012 there are consumers questioned, some media also specially invited experts to clarify.

"Even if we put aside the views of relevant experts and the test results, only from the common sense, we can find the loopholes in the rumors." "Said one netizen.

The head of the Jinjiang Food industry Association suggested that a national-level food safety testing institution could be established in Jinjiang to enhance the ability of enterprises to cope with various market risks. "In the future, if there are such rumour-mongering incidents, the testing institution can immediately test to reduce the loss of enterprises."

Newspaper Fuzhou on February 26

Plastic Industry Video