"The shepherd's purse that is yellow and soiled is directly pickled; the workers wear slippers or step on the pickled sauerkraut with bare feet; the smoked cigarette butts are thrown into the sauerkraut to ferment together."
On the evening of March 15, the “Tukeng Sauerkraut” of 4 companies including Chuqi Vegetable Industry and Hunan Jinrui Foods was exposed on CCTV’s “315” party. The public found that these companies supply sauerkraut ingredients, including instant noodles, to well-known food companies. Brand giant Tingyi Holdings (00322.HK) and Uni-President China (00220.HK).
A month later, "sauerkraut instant noodles" has returned to the supermarket shelves after being exposed, apologizing, and being taken off the shelves.
The Red Star Capital Bureau noticed that this food safety incident that happened more than a month ago still left many questions.
How much problem sauerkraut is being sold to consumers?
According to public information, the flag-raising vegetable industry was established in May 2005.
When did the flag-cooking vegetable industry become a supplier of well-known food companies such as Master Kong and Uni-President?
On April 19, the Red Star Capital Bureau asked Uni-President and Master Kong for verification on this issue, but did not receive a clear answer.
The Red Star Capital Bureau noticed that on February 26, 2013, Hunan Daily's "Focus on New Agricultural Business Subjects: Flagship Vegetable Industry, Leaders Drive Farmers" mentioned that Flagship Vegetable Industry "has successfully joined hands with the world's top 500 companies - Uniform The Group has become the raw material supplier of the Uni-President Group, supplying it with 600 million packets of sauerkraut flavor packets every year.”
The report also pointed out that well-known food processing enterprises such as Master Kong, Jinmailang, and Baixiang have also extended their "olive branches" and listed the flag-planting vegetable industry as a key enterprise for raw material supply.
It can be seen that as early as around 2013, the flag-cooking vegetable industry has become a supplier of enterprises such as Master Kong and Uni-President.
The Uni-President previously stated that it has not cooperated with the flag-chopping vegetable industry for five years, and perhaps its cooperation has been terminated before 2017.
From 2013 to 2022, the flag-fed vegetable industry may have been Master Kong's sauerkraut package supplier.
During this period, how many sauerkraut instant noodles did Master Kong sell?
Investigations by relevant departments may reveal some data.
China Consumer News reported that after the "315" party, the Economic Development Zone Branch of Xi'an Market Supervision Bureau arranged for supervisors to go to Xi'an Dingyi Food Co., Ltd. (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Master Kong) to conduct an investigation.
The survey results show that Dingyi Foods purchased a total of 17.84 million sauerkraut buns from Hunan Banqi Vegetable Industry Co., Ltd. in the past three months, and the remaining inventory was 3.2821 million bales. The sauerkraut buns were used to produce 861,124 boxes of various products, and 28,648 boxes of sauerkraut are currently in stock.
That is to say, in the past three months, about 830,000 boxes of sauerkraut-related products have flowed out of Xi'an Dingyi Food Company.
Is it difficult for consumers to protect their rights?
In addition to the removal and recall, Master Kong and Uni-President have provided return channels for sauerkraut instant noodles that have been purchased by consumers, and major supermarkets have also expressed that they can return the products if they meet the conditions.
The Red Star Capital Bureau noticed that some consumers questioned this: "Is it enough to just return the goods? Can consumers ask for compensation?"
Red Star Capital Bureau previously reported that on March 21, Wei Tao, a lawyer in Xi'an, Shaanxi, sued Xi'an Dingyi Food Co., Ltd., the manufacturer of Master Kong instant noodles, to the Weiyang District Court of Xi'an City, and claimed 10,000 yuan for mental damages. Dispute was filed.
Wei Tao told the Red Star Capital Bureau that after seeing the 315 exposure of the sauerkraut problem in the soil pit, he continued to pay attention to relevant trends.
But after observing Master Kong's response for a few days, he believes that Master Kong's "attitude is not sincere enough, and the follow-up attitude to consumers' explanation and handling is not sincere enough".
He said: "At that time (Master Kong) should apologize as soon as possible, actively take responsibility in the apology, and those who need to make compensation should make compensation. (But Master Kong) only recalled (sauerkraut series products), and the recall speed was quite slow. The effect is also very bad.”
Wei Tao believes that after consumers' rights are violated by businesses, they can claim compensation from producers and sellers.
This is both an act of supervision and a means of safeguarding rights.
On April 18, the Red Star Capital Bureau paid a return visit to lawyer Wei Tao, and was told that he was very busy recently and that he "can't take care of this case" because of his health.
Li Shasha, a lawyer at Beijing Dacheng (Chengdu) Law Firm, told the Red Star Capital Bureau that in general, the compensation amount for cases such as consumer rights protection is not large, but the litigation process of the case is long, and consumers may choose to mediate or withdraw their lawsuit.
Is it a violation of advertising laws to sell with documents?
On April 13, the news that Laotan sauerkraut instant noodles returned to Kunming supermarket shelves with quality inspection documents came out, which once again caused heated discussions.
According to the Metropolitan Times, on the morning of April 11, a Carrefour store re-launched Master Kong's Laotan Pickled Cabbage Noodles. Next to the shelf of Master Kong's Laotan Pickled Cabbage Noodles, there was a picture of Songming County Market Supervision and Administration released on March 23, 2022. "Administrative Proposal", which shows that the Laotan Pickled Cabbage Beef Noodles produced by Master Kong (Kunming) Instant Food Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Master Kong (Kunming)") and Kunming Uni-President Enterprise Food Co., Ltd. The pickled cabbage package comes from a food company in Sichuan. The supplier's license is complete, and no products of the company involved were exposed at the CCTV 3.15 party.
"Selling goods with documents" once again brought Master Kong into a storm of public opinion.
Some market voices think, how did the "Administrative Proposal" become Master Kong's "advertising"?
After the controversy, Master Kong (Kunming) responded to the media on April 18, saying that the company felt that the handling was inappropriate and had withdrawn all relevant documents.
On April 19, the Red Star Capital Bureau called the Songming County Municipal Supervision Bureau, which issued the above-mentioned "Administrative Proposal", and the relevant staff replied: "This "Administrative Proposal" was issued in compliance with laws and regulations."
Hu Gang, deputy secretary-general of the Legal Affairs Committee of the Internet Society of China and lawyer of the China Consumers Association, told the Red Star Capital Bureau that in the legal system, administrative guidance is a flexible measure, which is combined with rigid measures such as administrative investigation and administrative punishment.
The Red Star Capital Bureau learned that when issuing an administrative proposal, first, the market supervision department, as an administrative agency, put forward some opinions and suggestions in the future business activities to the inspection object or punishment object; second, the upper market supervision department sent the lower market supervision department. Some suggestions and requests are made in administrative actions.
Lawyer Hu Gang believes that in the above case, it is not appropriate for a non-mandatory administrative guidance document to be used by enterprises in commercial advertising. Consumers may think that this is a commercial advertisement, which will lead to misunderstandings.
"Article 9 of the "Advertising Law" stipulates that advertisements shall not use or disguised use of the names or images of state organs and state organs' staff; Advertising, the advertiser shall be fined not less than 200,000 yuan but not more than 1 million yuan, and if the circumstances are serious, the business license may be revoked.” Lawyer Hu Gang said.
Chengdu Business Daily-Red Star News reporter Yu Yaoqiang and Zhang Luxi