How to deal with food such as bread that cannot be sold in the supermarket?

Where are all the foods that were not sold in time in the supermarket? Who will supervise the disposal of expired food? This has become a question in the hearts of many consumers.

Among many foods, the most prone to shelf life problems are cooked food in bulk, cakes and some quick-frozen foods made in supermarkets. Recently, the reporter learned from the cooked food counters of several large general supermarkets in An that the food made on the spot really attracted many customers, but there were still some leftovers in the counters. When asked what would happen if these foods were not sold within the shelf life, the salespeople at several counters gave the same answer to reporters: no.

For other kinds of food, most supermarkets have indicated that they will choose products near the shelf life for discount promotion; Destroy all those that can't be sold. But some supermarkets will return unsold and expired goods to suppliers, so what will manufacturers do with these goods? The reporter interviewed several food production enterprises by telephone. A woman in the marketing department of Xi 'an Anqi Food Co., Ltd., a Sino-foreign joint venture, said: Generally, the company does not allow expired goods to go to the counter. Products such as cakes and bread sold in supermarkets, if not sold within the shelf life, will generally be returned to the company by shopping malls and supermarkets, and then destroyed by the company.

Although many merchants and manufacturers say that expired food will be destroyed, the destruction work is often operated by the merchants or manufacturers themselves, and the general public cannot witness it and naturally cannot supervise it. Before the Spring Festival, when Xi 'an Industrial and Commercial Department inspected the holiday market, it was found that some supermarkets still had expired bread for sale, and some processed cooked foods were still on the shelves after the shelf life. The inspector immediately made a decision and ordered the cabinet to be dismantled and destroyed.

So how does the administrative law enforcement department supervise the handling of expired food? A person in charge of the Political Work Department of the Xi Municipal Administration for Industry and Commerce said that at present, some large supermarkets deal with expired food in a relatively standardized way, but it is difficult for some smaller businesses to guarantee it. Ma Shiqun, complaint department of Xi Consumers Association, said that the Consumers Association accepts complaints about expired food, but most consumers usually choose to return it directly to the supermarket when purchasing expired goods. So far, no consumer has complained about this, so the consumer association can't effectively supervise the handling of expired food.

Xi Li Yajie, director of the Food Safety Supervision Department of the US Food and Drug Administration, said that food safety involves many departments and links such as agriculture, industry and commerce. The Food Safety Committee has no law enforcement ability, but only plays a leading role when food safety problems involving multiple links arise. The problem of expired food in supermarkets is under the jurisdiction of the industrial and commercial departments, and should bear the main responsibility.

A supervisor of the second food division of Xi 'an Health Supervision Institute also pointed out that the management of food circulation is mainly the responsibility of the industrial and commercial departments, and the health supervision institute only provides technical guidance. Moreover, in a series of supervision and inspection, it has not been found that supermarkets are selling spoiled food, and no complaints have been received in this regard. However, if it is found that a supermarket sells spoiled food, the health supervision office will certainly deal with it in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Food Hygiene Law.

Relevant persons suggest that to strengthen the supervision of expired food processing, on the one hand, it is necessary to rely on merchants and manufacturers to strengthen self-discipline and not sell expired food. If the food expires, it will be immediately removed from the shelf or destroyed, so that consumers can be satisfied and assured. On the other hand, the media and consumers can be invited to supervise and openly deal with expired food; Or the relevant government departments will supervise the destruction, make the disposal process of expired food public, and at the same time make the process of making food transparent, so that people can be more practical when buying food and effectively protect people's food safety.