Fresh fish vanish from Beijing stores
MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE: Vacant fish tanks in supermarkets have raised questions among people in China’s capital, Chris Buckley and Adam Wu write
IN supermarkets across the Chinese capital, shoppers have been staring, baffled by empty fish tanks and asking: Where have all the fish gone? Carp and other freshwater fish, usually sold alive and flapping, have disappeared from sale in recent days, leaving behind vacant tanks and shifting, contradictory explanations from officials and supermarket managers.
The missing fish and murky information have become a big deal for city residents bruised by dozens of food safety scares.
“Yes, I love eating freshwater fish, like catfish and carp,” Zhu Lanrong, a 73-year-old retiree, said at a supermarket in southeast Beijing.
“If there was nothing wrong with the fish, they wouldn’t have cleared them out,” Zhu said. “Something is wrong, and in fact, it’s not only about fish, but all kinds of food. Food safety is a fundamental concern of the ordinary folks.”
The Beijing Food and Drug Administration has denied that there was any outbreak of pollution that had tainted fish. It said any decision to halt sales was “normal commercial behaviour” by retailers voluntarily adjusting to changing consumer demand over many months.
In a country where contaminated food is a chronic worry, removing the fish so swiftly from sale seemed highly suspicious.
“I don’t know whether it is because of water pollution or to evade inspection,” said Yu Huaying, 64, a retired worker. She said she had gone to her local supermarket to buy carp.
“It certainly concerns me since I love eating freshwater fish like carp. What I want to know most of all is what happened.”
The city’s newspapers have also been demanding answers, though heavy state censorship prevents them from investigating bigger scandals. But the vanishing fish have become a powerful story, and a morality tale of the enforced ignorance and uncertainty that frustrates Chinese citizens.
The front page of The Beijing News newspaper on Thursday was dominated by a picture of empty tanks at a supermarket.
“When live fish mysteriously disappear from some supermarkets, when there’s a plethora of public explanations, when rumours and doubts abound, in the end, it all comes down to having no sense of psychological security,” the paper said in a commentary online.
Not all supermarkets have removed their live freshwater fish. Visits to supermarkets across Beijing found some were still selling carp, northern snakehead and other freshwater fish.
But in many other stores, freshwater fish are gone with no explanation. At a supermarket in Sihui, decorative gold fish were swimming in one tank that sales assistants said had been brimming with freshwater fish until a few days ago.
“We’ve been to a couple small and big supermarkets in the neighbourhood, but there are no fish,” said Han Yi, a 24-year-old technology professional.
“I would always buy from big supermarkets as I thought they would be safe,” Han said. “Now, I’m not so sure.”
There may be a perfectly sound explanation for the disappearance of the fish. But residents have been befuddled over whose explanation to believe.
Caixin, a respected business magazine, reported on Wednesday, that supermarkets had removed their fish after word leaked that national inspectors would begin a wide-ranging check for banned chemicals and additives in foods.
Southern Weekend, a weekly newspaper published in Guangdong province, reported on Thursday that some retailers appeared fearful of heavy fines for using excessive amounts of antibiotics and other additives in water to keep fish alive and free of disease.
The Beijing Food and Drug Administration said on Thursday that rumours of an outbreak of pollution that left lingering toxins in fish were groundless, and there had been no directive telling retailers to stop selling live freshwater fish.
Calls to branches and consumer hotlines for Carrefour, Wumart, Jingkelong and other supermarket chains in Beijing went unanswered or brought claims of uncertainty about the reports. Some managers and sales assistants told Chinese newspapers that they were simply changing suppliers of live freshwater fish, or were shifting to sales of frozen fish.
There have been no health reports that would suggest a spike in poisoning from fish. And at a wholesale market for fish and aquatic products in Dahongmen, south Beijing, business was reportedly normal.
But Chinese consumers have a long memory of food scandals, including episodes involving filthy recycled cooking oil; meat saturated with artificial colouring and additives; and pigs that died from disease being sold for human consumption.
Worst of all, in 2008 milk companies were found to be selling infant milk powder adulterated with melamine to bamboozle food inspectors.
Given all that, many people in Beijing suspect that they are not being told the full story about the empty fish tanks.
On Thursday, the national China Food and Drug Administration said it would carry out a thorough check on fish and other aquatic products sold in Beijing and other cities.
“Consumers are full of doubts,” the Huangshan Daily, a newspaper in northwest China, said in an editorial Thursday.
“But none of the supermarkets has offered a reasonable explanation,” it said. “Without a clear explanation, there’ll be no easing of public anxiety.” NYT
In a country where contaminated food is a chronic worry, removing the fish so swiftly from sale seemed highly suspicious.