Latest product scandal exposed by state media: medicine capsules made from leather scraps
For years, underground workshops in China have been bleaching worn-out leatherwear and leather scraps with lime, processing them into a gelling agent and selling it to manufacturers of medicine capsules, according to an investigative report by China Central Television. Such capsules contain a high level of chromium, which, as a heavy metal, may damage people’s kidneys and liver, or even cause cancer.
“Heavy metal Chromium exceeds standard”
“Industrial waste of leather –> Industrial galatin –> Medicine capsules”
Gelatin is a gelling agent extracted from animal protein widely used in food, such as yogurt and gummy bears. But a CCTV news program revealed Sunday that industrial gelatin illegally made from waste leather is transported to plants in the country’s biggest capsule manufacturing area in east China’s Zhejiang Province, where one third of the country’s capsules are made.
Leather scraps used to make gelatin are in fact leftover bits and pieces of the industrial leather-making process and therefor are very cheap, priced at a few hundred yuan per ton. Capsules made from industrial gelatin can reduce the cost of capsule production dramatically. Leather capsules are priced at 40 yuan (US$6.3) per 10,000 capsules, compared to regular capsules at 100 yuan. These low-cost and yet hazardous capsules are eventually headed for pharmaceutical companies all over the country and used to enclose medicines.
CCTV sent some 13 types of medicines that used leather-made encapsulation for lab tests. The results showed that all 13 samples, produced by nine companies, contained chromium in excess of the country’s standard – 2 milligrams per kilogram – and some contained 90 times more.
Substandard medicines containing excessive chromium are made public by CCTV.
It is not the first time the country heard about industrial gelatin being used for manufacturing products that end up in people’s stomachs. Last week, a CCTV anchor named Zhao Pu briefly mentioned the illegal use of leather scraps in the food industry on Weibo by posting, “Comrades, please eat no more yogurt (solid type) or jelly. Especially children. The inside story is very scary. Prefer not to discuss it in detail.” Later, Zhu Wenqiang, a reporter from the Economic Observer, shared Zhao’s post, saying that yogurt might contain industrial gelatin made from discarded leather shoes. The two posts were relayed by hundreds of thousands of Weibo users, causing public scare over yogurt and jelly. Sales may suffer from such words circulating on Weibo in the following weeks, according to China Daily.
In 2009, Southern Metropolis Daily exposed the entire manufacturing process of industrial gelatin in a report about milk adulterated with protein extracted from leather scraps.
After being drenched for three or four hours, leather scraps turn cleaner and softer.
A leather-cleasing machine is washing leather scraps.
Leather scraps are soaked in the pond for three to five days.
Workers have to manually sort out washed leather scraps. Scums are discarded. Some scraps are headed back for re-washing.
The finishing product of industrial gelatin.
doc cat...China really so scary woh...so many yrs ago I quit eating china foods oledi... |
發表於 2012-6-20 02:53 PM
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好, 去買嘢食
