01

Recently, a food safety issue has become a hot topic.

After 5 p.m. on September 3, 2023, the 12345 Citizens Hotline received an emergency call from a Nantong hotel staff member, who asked: "Our hotel added gentamicin injection to the soup. I want to know if this is a legal food additive?"

Subsequently, the relevant departments quickly launched a surprise inspection. Law enforcement officers found 4 boxes of used gentamicin sulfate injection in the trash can of the hotel kitchen, and seized 101 boxes of the same injection that had not been used in the chef's office. Law enforcement officers also checked the menu on site and sampled relevant dishes. After analysis by an authoritative testing agency, gentamicin was detected in both the dish samples extracted from the hotel kitchen and the unopened injection.

02

This operation is really explosive.

Gentamicin can be used to treat bacterial intestinal infections (diarrhea), which means that the chef knows that his dishes are problematic and will cause diarrhea, so he gives the customers some antidiarrheal drugs first.

Let’s not talk about whether this operation is useful or not. Gentamicin is a prescription drug with side effects including ototoxicity and nephrotoxicity. There was news that abuse of gentamicin has caused deafness in many children[1]. In addition, long-term use can easily lead to kidney problems. In addition, children under 6 years old, pregnant women and people over 65 years old should not use gentamicin.

After reading the police report, I found that more than 1,600 servings of dishes injected with antibiotics were sold. The relevant customers may consider filing a claim with the hotel.

Since 2023, in order to prevent mass food poisoning accidents caused by diarrhea after eating, the hotel's chef Changsha and chef Fu added gentamicin sulfate injection to "starter dishes" such as braised fish maw with chicken sauce and braised tendon with chicken sauce, at the standard of one box for ten tables (equivalent to one injection per table). A total of 1,612 dishes containing the drug have been sold, with sales of 77,376 yuan.

Another problem is that the hotel bought 100 boxes of antibiotics at once. For a prescription drug that should be used strictly, didn't the pharmacy have any vigilance?

The police notice also stated that many local pharmacies illegally sold Daqingmycin injection without a prescription in the hotel.This is a food safety issue where upstream and downstream parties are colluding and covering up for each other.。

The final punishment is:

On April 23, the court pronounced the first-instance judgment on the criminal and civil public interest litigation in the case, supporting all the litigation requests of the procuratorate. The two defendants were sentenced to two years and one year and six months in prison respectively for the crime of producing and selling toxic and harmful food, and were given suspended sentences and fined a total of 160,000 yuan.

03

A few more words about gentamicin:

Gentamycin is a broad-spectrum aminoglycoside antibiotic with significant antibacterial effects. Its mechanism of action is mainly through binding to the 30s subunit of bacterial ribosomes, blocking the synthesis of bacterial proteins, thereby inhibiting bacterial growth and reproduction.

Oral preparations of gentamicin are mainly used to treat intestinal infections. Since they are generally not absorbed into the blood after oral administration, they have a higher concentration in the intestine, which is beneficial for the treatment of intestinal infections.

Gentamicin has a wide range of applications, including but not limited to lower respiratory tract infections, abdominal infections, urinary tract infections, central nervous system infections, etc. In addition, gentamicin eye drops are also suitable for the treatment of certain eye infections.

In May 1999, the Ministry of Health promulgated the “Clinical Use Guidelines for Commonly Used Ototoxic Drugs” [2], which listed 30 drugs that are likely to cause deafness, gentamicin being one of them.

According to the specification: Before using gentamicin, the doctor needs to evaluate the patient's individual condition, including age, renal function status and other factors, and conduct necessary monitoring. During use, the patient's renal function and hearing should be monitored regularly to detect and deal with possible adverse reactions in a timely manner.

refer to

[1] Every year, approximately 30,000 children suffer from drug poisoning and deafness. It is time to stop using gentamicin-like drugs in children.

[2] Clinical use guidelines for commonly used ototoxic drugs