Food safety safeguarded by science and technology
At the National Agricultural Product Quality and Safety Supervision Work Conference on January 22, 2015, Jiang Jincheng, Su Qingyun and Liu Ying from grassroots agricultural product inspection and testing stations received the “National May 1 Labor Medal” issued by the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, while three other inspectors also from the grassroots, Xu Jing, Lu Yanfen and Xie Liyun, received the “National Technical Expert” medal and certificate from the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security. They were the winners of the Second National Agricultural Product Quality Inspection Technology Competition.
Behind Jiang Jincheng and Xu Jing are 35,000 quality and safety inspectors on the front line of agricultural product quality and safety inspection and testing. “Agricultural product quality and safety testing is an important technical means of implementing agricultural product quality and safety supervision. Holding competition activities and awarding such heavyweight awards to the winners is precisely to improve the capabilities and level of grassroots testing technicians as quickly as possible, and to stimulate and mobilize the enthusiasm of the broad ranks of grassroots testing technicians to study professional theory and diligently delve into technology.” said Zeng Qing, director of the Monitoring Division of the Agricultural Product Quality and Safety Bureau of the Ministry of Agriculture. “Agricultural product quality and safety testing must be able to detect, detect quickly, and detect well, so that the inspection and testing system built with state investment can truly play its role.”
“Agricultural product testing is the line of defense closest to dining table safety.”
Today, when safety at the tip of the tongue is highly valued, only the scientific analysis of these professional instruments, equipment and testing personnel can give authoritative identification to the food on our dining tables. Their outstanding skills have all been honed in battle after battle defending food safety.
White lab coats, rubber gloves, experimental instruments costing hundreds of thousands or even millions at every turn, and chemical solvents of various colors. Amid the slight collisions of transparent test tubes, item after item of data concerning safety at the tip of the tongue appears one by one——“The various tests carried out in the process of agricultural product quality and safety testing are probably the line of defense closest to our safety at the tip of the tongue.” This is how Jiang Jincheng from the Agricultural Product Quality and Safety Testing Center of Yongchuan District, Chongqing, understands his work.
⟦NL> Jiang Jincheng, a graduate of Chongqing Institute of Technology with a major in Chinese, was originally the “pen” of the Yongchuan District Agriculture Bureau. Now, when entering his study, the dog-eared copies of “Advanced Organic Chemistry,” “Advanced Inorganic Chemistry” and more than a thousand sets of national and industry testing standards for agricultural product quality and safety have become his main reading list.
From not even knowing how to use a pipette to now being the first place winner in quantitative detection of pesticide residues in crop products at the national testing technology competition, Jiang Jincheng's outstanding skills have been honed in battle after “tough battle.” During the first national soil pollution source census, which lasted three years, Jiang Jincheng and his colleagues had to go into paddy fields with water up to their calves to collect soil samples, and each soil sample had to be analyzed for dozens of component elements. In the monthly routine monitoring of agricultural products, more than 200 samples were cumulatively spot-checked, and 56 pesticide residue indicators were tested. The overall safety situation of vegetables in the nine districts and counties of western Chongqing was shown with complete clarity in the 100,000 item-times of various indicators presented by the testing institute.
Liu Ying from the Qingdao Fishery Environment Monitoring and Aquatic Product Quality Testing Center won first place in the quantitative detection of drug residues in aquatic products at the competition. “When others do experiments, what makes them happiest is detecting something. When we do testing, what makes us happiest is not detecting anything.”
“The preparation of each sample costs about 1,500 yuan. Such a high cost requires us to do our utmost for every sample, strictly controlling the specifications of slicing and the force of homogenization. In recent years, drug residues such as nitrofuran antibiotics and malachite green, which once had a certain detection rate above standards, have almost disappeared. Sometimes our leaders get anxious with us: why has no nonconforming sample been detected for so long? Are you not working seriously? In fact, with the improvement of supervision and testing levels in recent years, the safety of aquatic products has absolutely improved. These tests of ours, which are closest to the dining table, can best explain the problem.” Liu Ying said.
“For food safety, science popularization is very important.”
Consumers need science popularization in order to establish a correct understanding of food and rebuild confidence in our agricultural product supply system. Growers need science popularization even more. How to choose low-toxicity and high-efficiency biological pesticides, and how to ensure the pre-harvest interval, while both reducing planting costs and ensuring product quality, are essential qualities for efficient ecological agricultural producers.
Liu Ying told reporters that every summer, aquatic products come onto the market in large quantities. A large number of samples enter the testing center from vegetable markets, supermarkets and farms. Each sample must go through procedures such as removing sand and taking intestines, crushing, sample preparation, purification, extraction, concentration, constant volume and machine loading. Through the “piercing eyes” of various precision instruments such as chromatographs and mass spectrometers, scientific data are obtained through technical analysis. Whether the drug residues in a sample meet standards requires a 24-hour uninterrupted procedure to complete. The safety testing indicators for ordinary aquatic products reach dozens of categories, including nitrofurans, quinolones, sulfonamides and other drug residues.
Liu Ying told reporters that some online posts say sea cucumber farming adds large amounts of antibiotics. In fact, the ponds for artificially farmed sea cucumbers are very large. If antibiotics were added at a concentration that could actually take effect, farmers would lose more than they gained. To prevent sea cucumber diseases, most farmers in Qingdao adopt the method of microbial balanced flora. “Rumors including the use of contraceptives in crab farming are all claims without scientific basis. Even in terms of cost and benefit, farmers would not adopt these methods. Consumers need a great deal of science popularization to build confidence in food.”
“Not only consumers need science popularization, farmers need it even more.” Su Qingyun, who won first place in the quantitative detection of veterinary drug residues in livestock and poultry products at the skills competition, may be a “post-80s” person, but has already worked on the front line of agricultural product quality inspection and testing for 13 years.
“Rational drug use is a lesson every grower should make up for.” In order to use testing and supervision to force improvements in the production quality of agricultural products, Su Qingyun and his colleagues spend several months each year out of the laboratory, teaching farmers and cooperative members in the fields how to use drugs scientifically and plant rationally.
Cowpea is a vegetable that very easily develops pesticide residues above standards, and it has a relatively large planting area in Guangdong. “The reason cowpea easily exceeds pesticide residue standards is related to its biological characteristic of continuous and concentrated ripening for market. Therefore, advance prevention and the use of low-toxicity pesticides are key. As long as farmers learn to use pesticides scientifically, they can avoid the occurrence of ‘poisonous cowpea’ incidents.” Su Qingyun said.
“Professional technical talent is too important for the inspection and testing system.”
Agricultural product quality and safety testing stations are mostly subordinate public institutions of local agriculture departments, with limited staffing and ordinary pay. Even when highly educated professional talent occasionally appears, it often cannot be retained. On the one hand, employees within the system are “working around the clock”; on the other hand, professional talent with matching skills finds it difficult to enter.
As a “veteran” on the testing front, Lu Yanfen won the title of “National Technical Expert” in this skills competition. This was already the second time she represented Hunan Province in the competition and achieved excellent results.
Lu Yanfen has the stubbornness and “strictness” of a professional technician. In a 2012 test for malachite green residue in aquatic products, a colleague's standard curve showed a slight deviation, which did not have much impact on the test result. After learning of this, she immediately required that the issuance of the test report be postponed and led the technical team in a comprehensive investigation and traceability. After analyzing more than 10 possible factors, they finally found that the deviation was caused by contamination of the container used to transfer the standard solution.
In order to recruit a few professional talents for the testing center, starting in 2009, Lu Yanfen traveled to agricultural universities in various places every year, conducting strict assessments and patiently persuading, and finally introduced several outstanding master's graduates with matching specialties to the center.
“Once they are brought in, they still have to be retained.” Lu Yanfen told reporters that in agricultural product quality and safety testing work, what they often deal with are filthy livestock and poultry pens, diseased animals and toxic and harmful reagents on laboratory benches, which testing personnel jokingly call the “three old things.” “If enough growth cannot be obtained, which young person would be willing to keep working in this position for the long term?”
Xu Jing, who came from a major in agricultural resources and environment, can be counted as a formally trained professional in the testing team. For her, who has long persisted at the Jungar Banner Safety Testing Station in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, winning the title of National Technical Expert in the skills competition is a great encouragement. “To remain unknown for many years and repeat rigorous experiments over and over again is extremely challenging for most people. This skills competition gave us a platform to show our abilities, and it really gives a sense of professional honor.”
Xie Liyun from the Kunming Animal Health Supervision Institute in Yunnan Province has a column on the Kunming Agricultural Information Network that is quite popular among farmers and consumers, called “Teacher Xie Talks About Animal Inspection.” From the clinical symptoms of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome to the effect of heat treatment on the quality of milk products, the science popularization she does, with an educational background in animal genetics and breeding from Yunnan Agricultural University, combines interest with professionalism and has considerable authoritative persuasiveness among consumers. “More and better professional talent entering this team is the foundation for the agricultural product inspection and testing system to truly play its role. In recent years the state has invested a great deal of manpower and material resources in technical training for the testing team, and we are all beneficiaries. I hope more young people with professional skills can be added to this team, making this fire wall for food safety stronger.”