'Fresh' food that may have been frozen raises concern

You walk into a supermarket and see fresh-looking food, and the tag says that the best-before date is in three days. When do you think the food was produced?

A recent complaint aroused concern. A consumer surnamed Xiao in Wuhan of Hubei Province bought a braised food platter for around 70 yuan (US$9.53) from a Sam's Club retail store. The platter had a "repackaging date" on the label indicating it had been produced the same day Xiao bought it and suggested the best-before day in three days.

On going home, however, Xiao discovered another label on the platter, revealing that it was actually a frozen, pre-prepared dish with a shelf life of one year, and its actual production date was around two months ago. Xiao said she wouldn't have bought it had she known it was frozen food.

After she filed a complaint, the Wuhan Market Supervision and Administration Bureau required Sam's Club to take the entire batch of braised food platters off the shelf and relabel them, clarifying that they were not freshly cooked.

This is not the first time such an issue has provoked complaints, and the ultimate reason is that the current law doesn't require businesses to clarify the production date of pre-made food, or to tell consumers if the food they buy is freshly cooked or has been frozen.

This allows some businesses to reduce costs by purchasing industrial pre-made foods yet sell them at the price of freshly cooked without having to inform the customer.

This can happen not only in supermarkets but restaurants as well.

Earlier this month, entrepreneur Luo Yonghao posted on Weibo to say that pre-made, frozen food in restaurants was cheating.

"I go to a restaurant to taste the chef's craft and creativity, and you open up a frozen food pack and heat it up for me and charge me a lot more than you should," was one online comment in response. "This should be illegal."

There are currently over 70,000 pre-prepared food processing enterprises in China, with a production value exceeding 500 billion yuan last year. Pre-prepared food offers the advantages of industrialized production and better high hygiene, but additives are used to greatly prolong shelf life, therefore many consumers try to avoid pre-prepared food as much as possible.

In March, the State Administration for Market Regulation issued a notice urging businesses to tell consumers about the pre-made food they use. However, the notice is not compulsory.

National standards for pre-prepared food are being drawn up, and it is hoped that consumers will be taken more seriously, as cheating will harm the entire market.