One Hundred Percent Fake

Xiaoye Peng

         One Hundred Percent Fake

                                     

Milk powder is a child’s life. In 2008, there was a big shock in the news in China which was the Sanlu milk powder scandal. It was also the reason why my parents decided to immigrate to the United States. Due to the rapid economic development of the past twenty years, China's dairy market became very large, and because of the huge consumer groups, Sanlu brand launched infant formula milk powder at a very low price. It was less than half the price of imported milk powder. Soon, it occupied a large part of the dairy market. At that time, the Sanlu brand became an important and well-known brand of infant milk powder in China, ranking first place in the domestic milk market for many years. However, due to high demand, price competition, and other factors, both the companies and the government ignored the production process and quality control. This led the company to add melamine and cyanuric acid to the milk powder, and it became poisoned. Finally, this scandal broke out. After this milk powder scandal and other unsafe food stories, my parents were worried about the safety of food and decided to move to the U.S.

Many Chinese parents thought the imported milk powder was safer than the domestic milk powder, and my parents were not the exception. My sister was born in 2008, and she had to drink milk powder. At that time, the domestic milk powder could be divided into three quality levels: high, medium and low. Due to a large working and poor class in China, people people did not have a lot of money to buy imported milk powder. Even though my parents were not rich, they still wanted my younger sister to drink safe milk powder and grow up healthy, so they usually asked my aunt who lived in Hong Kong to buy imported milk powder and send it to us. We needed to give her back the money she paid for the milk powder and the transportation expenses. It meant my parents spent a lot of money on milk powder. Fortunately, the Sanlu brand launched infant formula milk powder at a price of 18 RMB per bag. It was much cheaper than the imported milk powder. Due to it being ranked first place in the domestic milk market and the price of Sanlu brand milk powder was so low, people bought it without any hesitation, including my parents. However, due to high demand, price competition, and other factors, both the companies and the governments ignored the production process and quality control of the milk powder. Finally, this scandal broke out. The product used wheat protein powder and rice protein powder imported from mainland China in late 2006, which contained melamine and cyanuric acid. More and more babies were getting sick, even dying because of Sanlu milk powder.

In addition, the overall food product quality in China became lower and lower, even the flour that people often use had problems. It was found that some flour had a large amount of talcum powder added to it, and long-term consumption would cause hypermagnesemia, oral ulcers and gingival bleeding, even caused liver, kidney and nervous system damage. Later, it was found that ShanDong flour not only contained talcum powder, but also contained washing powder, sodium hydroxide and other chemical raw materials for bleaching. There were people dying because of these flours. In order to earn more money, companies did whatever they could regardless of the consequences. They put Illegal additives, including clenbuterol and highly toxic pesticides in the food. It was so horrible. Over the years in China, the main purpose of China's agricultural policy was to increase the supply of agricultural products. As a result, the output of grain, vegetables, meat, eggs, and milk has increased, but at the same time, the quality declined and many products were tainted.

Furthermore, my parents didn’t trust the food in China anymore. Food is the god of people. They can control their nutrient intake every day, but they can’t control their food safety. Even if people buy food carefully, sometimes they can’t avoid the tainted food. My parents wanted to eat safe food, and they wanted me and my sister to grow up healthy too. The basic wish of every parent is that their children can grow up safely and healthily. We are all human beings. It is unimaginable that a company would hurt people just for more money. My parents chose the lives they wanted, not because they didn’t like China, but because they couldn’t forgive the people who indirectly kill people. Therefore, my family decided to immigrate from China to the United States. Whenever I see unsafe or tainted food in the news, it reminds me of the Sanlu scandal. I don’t want people to die because of the bad food made by the bad companies. The biggest problems in China right now are poisoned food, water, and air. My parents really didn’t want to see this happen again in our life, so they chose to immigrate. I hope companies no longer produce unsafe food, people no longer worried about food safety, the country no longer shame for food safety. Come on, let’s take action together, we can defeat fake food!