315 did not actually report on the chicken bone gelatin issue; this problem itself is confusing the CCTV 3·15 Gala’s official exposure with other food safety hotspots that occurred at the same time

Journalism

The 315 Gala listed nine manufacturers, but none of them produced sausage. Now, the nominated brands have lost all their buzz, while this focus on “tang mian chang” (starch sausage) – a popular snack found everywhere and likely the most common one – feels like it’s being unfairly targeted. I traced the news source to a CCTV report published on 3.15 investigating ham sausages, but it only listed ingredients from several manufacturers without finding any issues. Then, this reporter claimed, through an employee of a factory, that chicken bone meal was sometimes used as a substitute for chicken – essentially hearsay. She then asked pet food stores selling chicken bone meal on Taobao if it’s safe for human consumption. Isn’t that ridiculous? Would a pet food vendor actually recommend people eat it? Subsequently, rumors spread claiming starch sausage contained chicken bone meal, which is unsafe for humans.

The current situation is likely causing many factories to close down, and hundreds of thousands of small vendors across the country are facing a predicament where they can’t sell their goods and have no business

Reality of the human world

According to a report by the Xiaoxiang Morning News on March 17th, on March 16th in Sanmenxia, Henan, the day after the “starch-paste sausage collapse incident,” a woman set up her stall to sell starch-paste sausages. However, two hours passed without any customers, and she eventually quietly ate the sausages herself. The person who filmed the scene said that he used to be able to eat four or five starch-paste sausages at a time, but after learning about the chicken bone powder inside, he resolutely stopped eating them. That day, curious to see if anyone would still buy starch-paste sausages after the exposure, he witnessed the vendor selling not a single one in two hours.

• Auntie has no idea about this tapioca sausage incident; she just knows that suddenly, nobody is buying her grilled sausages today
• The old woman isn’t wrong; she’s just trying to feed her family. The old woman doesn’t even know if the product has problems or is qualified, nor does she know what bone glue is. They don’t understand the internet; they are simply people at the bottom trying to find a way to survive.
• The starch sausage collapsed, but those paying the bill are individual grassroots vendors. It’s a painful process.

Regulatory failure

A few years ago, one afternoon, a colleague of mine who had come from out of town and I went to lunch, passing by a stall selling grilled sausages and stir-fried beef

I blurted out, “Do people still eat black technology sausages and sirloin like this?” Because in my mind, the last time I ate a starch sausage was probably about fifteen years ago

My colleague hesitated for a moment, then said tactfully, “Maybe it’s because you live in a big city. In our hometown, a small place like that, pickled vegetables, instant noodles, and sausage are part of everyday life.”

When I was in school, my dad would only let me have a grilled sausage if I got a perfect score on my test. It wasn’t because they were unhygienic; it’s just that a grilled sausage cost 1.5 yuan—enough to buy two jin of vegetables.

I first heard the idea of calling instant noodles, carbonated drinks, and spicy-flavored fish snacks “junk food” after I started studying in Beijing

I realized the arrogance in my careless words just now and remained silent. But this incident left a deep impression on me.

In reality, this is the daily life of most ordinary people in China

Their lives lacked the sophisticated “Mediterranean diet,” “green organic vegetables,” and “non-GMO soybeans.” They only cared about whether they could buy some cheap yet delicious vegetables, meat, and snacks, allowing the whole family to enjoy their few moments of happiness

As for the items on the shelves, what are they made of, whether they will poison their health, and if there are any peculiar chemical ingredients

It was never something they should care about or understand

They simply believed that if there were any problems, someone would take care of it and it wouldn’t appear on the shelves

But after watching the 315 gala, everyone realized that wasn’t the case

The electronic scales in markets and gas pumps at gas stations can be fitted with high-tech modified motherboards, requiring content creators to risk being assaulted while filming videos so that regulators can finally realize the issue and take action

The cured pork with pickled plums in live-streaming rooms and the powdered sausage sold at street stalls were actually made from rotten meat and bone powder. It took CCTV reporters to go undercover and film footage before anyone would verify it or investigate the source and origin of the goods.

The “health tonic wine” heavily promoted on TV channels and airport advertisements needed someone to release a video exposing its secrets before it was suddenly removed overnight and disappeared from public view

Is once a year’s 315 enough to drop five or six products that have been selling for a long time, just like this?

Who else would they turn to after already having eaten and bought from them?