Eight years later, can Chinese dairy products reassure consumers?

"A cup of milk strengthens a nation". Dairy products are related to people's health and the future of the nation. After the melamine incident in 2008, the domestic dairy industry suffered a heavy blow, and consumer confidence in domestic dairy products fell into a low ebb.

Eight years have passed, whether China's dairy industry, which has learned from the bitter experience and endured hardships, has been "transformed"? Can the quality of domestic dairy products stand the test? On August 16, the China Dairy Association released China's first dairy industry quality report, comprehensively responding to hot issues in the dairy industry.

Over the past 8 years, comprehensively rectify and revitalize the dairy industry, establish and improve the dairy quality testing system

Milk is regarded as the "closest to perfect food" given by nature, and the dairy industry is also the most dynamic and potential industry in China's animal husbandry. The melamine incident in 2008 was undoubtedly a blow to China's dairy industry.

"since 2008, China's dairy industry has learned from the bitter experience and set sail again, government departments have paid close attention to the rectification of quality and safety, and enterprise associations have paid close attention to improving the production management level of the industry. after eight years of efforts, the domestic dairy industry has gradually come out of the trough. The revitalization of the dairy industry also has a very good foundation." Gu Cheng, vice president and secretary-general of China Dairy Association, said.

It is understood that over the past eight years, the rectification and revitalization of China's dairy industry mainly starts with three links:

In the link of dairy farming, we have continuously increased the support for the dairy industry, and implemented a series of policies and measures, such as subsidy for improved breeds of dairy cows, standardized scale breeding, and revitalizing the development of alfalfa in the dairy industry. the level of scale, standardization, mechanization and organization of dairy cattle farming has been continuously improved. In 2015, the proportion of scale farming of more than 100 dairy cows reached 48.3%, an increase of 28.8% over 2008. 100% of large-scale farms realized mechanized milking; and there were more than 15000 professional dairy farmers' cooperatives, more than seven times that of 2008.

In the process of acquisition and transportation, the clean-up and rectification of milk stations was carried out in an all-round way, strict access management was carried out, substandard milk stations were resolutely banned, and the number of milk stations was reduced to 8500 from more than 20, 000 in 2008. the infrastructure, machinery and equipment, testing means and personnel quality of milk stations have been significantly improved. Fresh milk transport vehicles are all dedicated to special vehicles and licensed for transportation.

In the process of dairy processing, the production licenses of dairy products and infant milk powder enterprises were re-examined, a number of enterprises with unguaranteed milk sources and backward production technology were eliminated, the merger and reorganization of infant formula milk powder enterprises were vigorously promoted, and the industrial structure was optimized. effectively ensure the quality and safety of dairy products.

"since 2008, we have learned profound lessons and established a relatively perfect dairy quality and safety testing system." Wang Jiaqi, director of the Milk and Milk products quality Supervision, Inspection and testing (Beijing) Center of the Ministry of Agriculture and researcher of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, said that at present, China's testing of dairy products includes four major indicators, namely, nutrition indicators, health indicators, health indicators, and pollutant residue indicators, which can timely and accurately grasp the quality trends of dairy products and effectively warn and prevent the occurrence of quality and safety problems.

The quality and safety of dairy products has been greatly improved for seven consecutive years, the qualified rate of melamine sampling inspection is 100%.

In 2015, China's total milk output has reached 38.7 million tons, ranking third in the world, second only to India and the United States.

According to this quality report, since 2009, the Ministry of Agriculture has implemented a fresh milk quality and safety monitoring program, focusing on monitoring fresh milk purchasing stations and transporters. The test indicators include milk protein, milk fat, total bacterial count, aflatoxin M1, somatic cell count, lead, chromium, mercury, melamine, leather hydrolysates and other 10 indicators, a total of 151000 fresh milk samples were tested.

Among these indexes, milk protein and milk fat are the main indexes to measure the nutritional value of fresh milk, and total bacterial count, aflatoxin M1 and somatic cell count are the main indicators to reflect the hygienic status of fresh milk. Lead, chromium and mercury are the main indicators to judge whether fresh milk is polluted by heavy metals, and melamine and leather hydrolysates are the indicators to judge whether there are man-made contraband in fresh milk.

The sampling results showed that the average values of milk protein and milk fat in fresh milk were higher than the national standard and the American standard. The monitoring average values of total bacterial count, aflatoxin M1, somatic cell count, lead, chromium and mercury were much lower than the national limit standard, indicating that the breeding environment and health status of dairy cows were significantly improved. The qualified rate of prohibited additives such as melamine has been 100% for seven consecutive years.

"at present, domestic dairy production and dairy quality and safety are in the best period in history. The qualified rate of dairy products is much higher than that of other foods in China, so it can be said that dairy products have become one of the safest foods in China. " Wang Jiaqi said.

In response to the issue of antibiotic residues in fresh milk, which is of public concern, Wang Jiaqi said that China, like other countries in the world, has established strict standards for antibiotic residues, and cows must have a withdrawal period during the use of antibiotics. Milk produced during this period cannot be sold and used. "the results of sampling tests from 2013 to 2015 showed that no excessive use of banned antibiotics and antibiotics were found."

Chinese dairy products win affirmation that some dairy enterprises go overseas

In recent years, Chinese people are keen on purchasing and snapping up foreign dairy products, including mistrust of domestic dairy products and "worship" of foreign dairy products. So, must the quality of imported dairy products be better than that of domestic dairy products?

According to the report, in 2015, the Milk Product quality and Safety risk Assessment Laboratory of the Ministry of Agriculture (Beijing) monitored liquid milk products such as pasteurized milk, ultra-high temperature sterilized milk and prepared milk sold in 23 major cities in China. The results showed that there was no significant difference in risk factors such as aflatoxin M1, veterinary drug residues and heavy metal lead between domestic liquid milk and imported liquid milk, which accorded with the national limit standard. the content of furoic acid, a by-product of milk hot processing, in imported sterilized milk was higher than that in domestic sterilized milk.

Li Shengli, chief scientist of the national dairy industry technology system and professor of China Agricultural University, believes that the production equipment and processing technology of China's major dairy enterprises mostly come from international well-known manufacturers, and their management and operation have reached the international advanced level. Yili and Mengniu have entered the top 20 of the world dairy industry, and Junlebao infant milk powder has passed the internationally recognized global food safety standard (BRC) A+ top certification. Its infant formula has been strictly tested and examined in Hong Kong and has entered the Hong Kong market. Modern animal husbandry and Feihe Dairy have also won the gold medal of the World Food quality Evaluation Conference. These dairy products that go to the world are a high affirmation of China's dairy industry.

"at the present stage, there are still some sticking points and problems in the development of China's dairy industry, and its competitiveness is not enough compared with developed countries, but we are confident that through eight to ten years of unremitting efforts, we will achieve the revitalization of the national dairy industry." Gu inherits the expression.