Liquor scandal prompts effective food safety efforts

 BEIJING, Nov. 22 (Xinhua) -- China's national quality watchdog has urged a massive overhaul¹ on producers of spirits nationwide after confirming that some liquor products contained excessive levels of a plasticizer.

The latest scandal was first exposed in a research report from a website on Monday, renewing public concern about food safety. A probe into the distilled² spirits market has found trace amounts of DEHP, mainly DBP, in liquor products.

Most experts believe liquor producers do not deliberately³ add plasticizers to their products, which may well be tainted⁴ via plastic containers or tubes in their storage or transport.

Distilled spirits, or "baijiu" in Chinese, have been popular among different communities in China. Amid fast-growing economy in recent years, the liquor industry has grown, with its sales revenue reaching around 400 billion yuan (63.5 billion U.S.dollars) last year.

The liquor scandal will deal a blow to the competitive industry. Sales of some liquor products have dropped in the wake of the scandal, which has not yet fully⁵ shown its scope.

In fact, the China Alcoholic⁶ Drinks Association knew that liquor products contained plasticizers in June last year and urged liquor companies to trace the sources of plasticizers. Later, it asked liquor companies to ban the use of plastic products in production, storage and transport.

Shortly after plasticizers were detected in hundreds of local products in Taiwan in May 2011, the Chinese mainland authorities were alerted to the contamination. In June 2011, the national food safety committee issued a notice on strengthening the quality safety of liquor products.

This was the latest in a string of food contamination scandals, which has included melamine-tainted milk, pork containing the illegal additive⁷ clenbuterol and pharmaceutical⁸ capsules with excessive levels of chromium, over the past five years.

One of the most notorious food scandals involved melamine-tainted milk powder in 2008, which killed at least six babies and sickened 300,000 others. A number of officials were removed from their posts, members of the Sanlu management were jailed and Sanlu Group, once a leading dairy producer in China, went bankrupt.

Official data show that the law enforcement dealt with more than 180,000 food and medicine safety cases and penalized⁹ nearly 40,000 people in such cases between November 2007 and February 2012.

In February 2011, amendments¹⁰ to the Criminal Law imposed harsher punishment on offenders¹¹ in food safety crimes and inspection¹² officials guilty of negligence¹³.

The recent liquor scandal has underlined the urgent need for effective quality control measures on the part of responsible enterprises and active inspection efforts on the part of the government.

1 overhaul   

v./n.大修，仔细检查

参考例句：

• Master Worker Wang is responsible for the overhaul of this grinder.王师傅主修这台磨床。
• It is generally appreciated that the rail network needs a complete overhaul.众所周知，铁路系统需要大检修。

2 distilled   

adj.由蒸馏得来的v.蒸馏( distil的过去式和过去分词 )；从…提取精华

参考例句：

• The televised interview was distilled from 16 hours of film. 那次电视采访是从16个小时的影片中选出的精华。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Gasoline is distilled from crude oil. 汽油是从原油中提炼出来的。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 deliberately   

adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地

参考例句：

• The girl gave the show away deliberately.女孩故意泄露秘密。
• They deliberately shifted off the argument.他们故意回避这个论点。

4 tainted   

adj.腐坏的；污染的；沾污的；感染的v.使变质( taint的过去式和过去分词 )；使污染；败坏；被污染，腐坏，败坏

参考例句：

• The administration was tainted with scandal. 丑闻使得政府声名狼藉。
• He was considered tainted by association with the corrupt regime. 他因与腐败政府有牵连而名誉受损。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

6 alcoholic   

adj.（含）酒精的，由酒精引起的；n.酗酒者

参考例句：

• The alcoholic strength of brandy far exceeds that of wine.白兰地的酒精浓度远远超过葡萄酒。
• Alcoholic drinks act as a poison to a child.酒精饮料对小孩犹如毒药。

7 additive   

adj.附加的；n.添加剂

参考例句：

• Colour is often an additive in foods.颜料经常是各种食物中的添加物。
• Strict safety tests are carried out on food additives.对食品添加剂进行了严格的安全检测。

8 pharmaceutical   

adj.药学的，药物的；药用的，药剂师的

参考例句：

• She has donated money to establish a pharmaceutical laboratory.她捐款成立了一个药剂实验室。
• We are engaged in a legal tussle with a large pharmaceutical company.我们正同一家大制药公司闹法律纠纷。

9 penalized   

对…予以惩罚( penalize的过去式和过去分词 )； 使处于不利地位

参考例句：

• You will be penalized for poor spelling. 你拼写不好将会受到处罚。
• Team members will be penalized for lateness. 队员迟到要受处罚。

10 amendments   

（法律、文件的）改动( amendment的名词复数 )； 修正案； 修改； （美国宪法的）修正案

参考例句：

• The committee does not adequately consult others when drafting amendments. 委员会在起草修正案时没有充分征求他人的意见。
• Please propose amendments and addenda to the first draft of the document. 请对这个文件的初稿提出修改和补充意见。

11 offenders   

n.冒犯者( offender的名词复数 )；犯规者；罪犯；妨害…的人（或事物）

参考例句：

• Long prison sentences can be a very effective deterrent for offenders. 判处长期徒刑可对违法者起到强有力的威慑作用。
• Purposeful work is an important part of the regime for young offenders. 使从事有意义的劳动是管理少年犯的重要方法。

12 inspection   

n.检查，审查，检阅

参考例句：

• On random inspection the meat was found to be bad.经抽查，发现肉变质了。
• The soldiers lined up for their daily inspection by their officers.士兵们列队接受军官的日常检阅。

13 negligence   

n.疏忽，玩忽，粗心大意

参考例句：

• They charged him with negligence of duty.他们指责他玩忽职守。
• The traffic accident was allegedly due to negligence.这次车祸据说是由于疏忽造成的。