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cover news deep mirror investigation team

recently, regarding the "problem bird's nest" reported by consumers, cover news reporters placed orders for evidence collection and sample submission on multiple social and e-commerce platforms, and found that many samples contained excessive nitrite.

test results of the bird’s nest purchased by the reporter (photographed by the reporter)

reporters have continuously fed back relevant information to the local market supervision bureaus, and have received feedback from staff of the municipal supervision bureaus in shaoxing, changsha, zhuzhou, kunming, and guangzhou. most of the stores "have not found this person" or have been included in the operating list. exception list.

on the evening of september 26, these accounts selling maoyan and the so-called "dongyan" were still selling live broadcasts. some anchors changed their account names or changed the bound business licenses.

in addition, of the two stores that were found to have excessive nitrite, one closed its online store and the other changed its name and only sold regular products with traceability codes.

what are the risks of maoyan being sold privately? what are the consequences of excessive nitrite? the cover news reporter interviewed experts who participated in the drafting of my country's first "bird's nest products" industry standard.

experts said that my country prohibits the sale of raw swallows without sterilization, which may cause the risk of bird flu and other epidemics; my country only allows thai cave swallows to be imported into china, and thailand only exports 400 kilograms of products to china a year."the so-called thai cave swallows sold online are either fake or smuggled. cave swallows with excessive nitrite content may cause cancer if consumed in excess."

phenomenon:

the market supervision bureau’s investigation found that “no such person” was found, and most of the people behind it were “zombie companies”

on the evening of september 26, on major platforms such as taobao and douyin, there were still multiple live broadcast rooms selling woolen swallows and "cave swallows" of various colors.

from april to august, anchors on major platforms generally promoted that their bird's nests had a "great tonic" effect on pregnant women, the elderly, and children, and the prices ranged from 5.8 yuan per gram to more than 50 yuan.

the reporter once placed an order for evidence collection and sent it for inspection, and found that these bird's nests generally contained excessive nitrite, and the highest one exceeded the national standard by 160 times. among the 7 products, 6 had a mold count exceeding 220 units, and the highest mold count was 10,000 units.

beginning in april, reporters have successively reported inspection results to the local market supervision bureau based on the industrial and commercial registration address of the store bound to them.

the registered place of the account "guo xiang's bird's nest" is zhoushan. on august 13, the putuo branch of zhoushan city responded that no operator was found at the registration location; the next step would be to contact the douyin platform to learn about the situation, and then cancel according to the procedures.

in august and september, reporters noticed that the account changed its name to "pregnancy in indonesia" and carried out 18 live broadcasts in september, but instead sold white bird's nests with traceability codes.

previously, the stores bound to "xizhan bird's nest" and "niaojie bird's nest nourishing shop" were all in tianyuan district, zhuzhou city, hunan, and the business license operator was yin moulan. on august 20, the tianyuan district market supervision bureau reported that no one is actually operating in the registered place, and it has been listed as an operating abnormality; according to relevant regulations, consumers should deal with the market supervision department of the actual place of business or the location of the platform. the relevant departments in zhuzhou have not processing authority and will not be accepted in accordance with the law.

"dongyan maoyan" in douyin live broadcast room (screenshot of douyin)

on september 25, reporters discovered that "xizhan bird's nest" had changed its bound store to "maomao nourishing firm". the store is registered in changsha, and its operator is yin moulan. the above-mentioned accounts have conducted dozens of live broadcasts selling maoyan in the past month.

the reporter ordered a serving of wild cave swallow from the "zhanyantang bird's nest nourishing store" and the product was submitted for inspection and showed that the nitrite content was 600 mg/kg. the authorized store of this account is "bird's nest factory wholesale", and the corresponding business license is kunming city's "panlong district weichihan department store" (referred to as weichihan). this store was listed as operating abnormally in december 2023 because it could not be contacted.

information on the internet shows that a series of accounts such as "zhanyantang" and "linglongyan" are all associated with "weichihan department store in panlong district" and "lu zhijian department store in tianxin district, changsha" (lu zhijian for short) . among them, the company names registered on the platform and the business licenses of several stores are different.

after the reporter fed back the relevant information, changsha tianxin district market supervision bureau stated that the complainant did not provide evidence of consumption and would not accept the complaint in accordance with the law. the panlong district market supervision bureau of kunming city stated that it went to the registration place three times but failed to find an operator, and that "weichihan" will be included in the list of abnormal operations.

in addition, "golden ball swallow", "mr. cai's bird's nest nourishing firm (golden ball swallow)" and related accounts were also selling mao yan in the live broadcast room on september 25. they were also secretly associated with two or three companies and self-employed individuals in changsha and guangzhou, including one the registered address is the same as "lu zhizheng". the company bound to "jinqiuyan" was included in the directory of abnormal operations in october 2023 because the registration location could not be contacted.

in addition, there are multiple account groups with the "little bird special" as the core, with different accounts secretly associated with three companies and shops.

the reporter noticed that these accounts and stores frequently changed their names or changed their binding relationships, and most of their business addresses and shipping addresses were not unified, making them difficult to track.

in may, the reporter reported the phenomenon of a taobao store to the shaoxing municipal supervision bureau based on the inspection information. at the end of july, the market supervision bureau of yuecheng district, shaoxing city reported that they had visited the registration place several times to investigate, and the shop owner provided import declaration documents to prove the source; they found 20 grams of bird's nest products in the warehouse, and the data were normal after being sent for inspection.

on september 25, the store closed.

bird's nest expert:

there is a risk of viruses in raw swallows, and "thai cave swallows" sold online are likely to be smuggled or fake.

in the past two months, reporters have provided feedback to douyin and taobao customer service in the name of consumers. at present, no substantive reply or processing results have been received.

what are the consequences of excessive nitrite? what are the risks of selling raw bird's nest? are these excessive “wild bird’s nests” from a legitimate source? the reporter interviewed relevant experts.

zhong jianming, honorary chairman of the bird's nest industry international alliance and chairman of the bird's nest branch of the chinese medicinal culture research association, participated in the drafting of three domestic bird's nest food group standards.

he introduced that my country's hainan, guangdong, and yunnan have local bird's nests, but the output is small, the quality is slightly poor, and they are not circulated in large quantities in the market. edible bird's nests are mainly imported from southeast asia. after the "blood bird" incident broke out more than ten years ago, my country adopted strict access measures for the import of bird's nests. currently, only bird's nests from some factories in malaysia, indonesia, thailand, and vietnam can be exported to my country. moreover, my country has strict management on source manufacturers, import manufacturers, and distributors.

zhong jianming introduced that if the source factory wants to export products to my country, it must obtain approval from the ministry of agriculture, ministry of veterinary medicine or ministry of health of the country where it is located, and then submit an application to the general administration of customs of my country. the relevant customs departments will strictly review and meet the standards before the product can be approved. enter our country. currently, there are only more than 100 factories in four southeast asian countries that have this qualification. once their products have problems, they will be disqualified.

zhong jianming introduced that the import of bird's nests is divided into three categories: clean bird's nest, ready-to-eat bird's nest and raw bird's nest. among them, the raw bird's nest must be imported through designated ports. after strict random inspection by the customs, it enters domestic factories with raw material processing qualifications for production and processing. . after the "blood swallow" incident, my country also launched a traceability system to ensure that the source of imported bird's nests is legal and the destination is clear to ensure safety. however, there is currently no mandatory requirement for one code for each bird's nest, nor is it mandatory to use a traceability system.

chairman zhong introduced that among the four countries in southeast asia, only thailand’s cave swallows can enter china. “however, only 400 kilograms of thailand’s cave swallows entered china last year. they all went to big brands and private channels. there are very few thai cave swallows circulating in the market. , those sold publicly on the internet are most likely smuggled or counterfeit.”

president zhong introduced that bird's nests are divided into two categories: cave nests and house nests. the color of house nests is generally off-white, beige, or beige. cave nests will appear yellow or red because they absorb minerals from the rock wall. compared with house nests, they will appear yellow or red. the substance content is slightly higher, and "other nutrients are similar. but if the nutritional content of dongyan is exaggerated, it will mislead consumers."

customs experts:

it is illegal to sell raw bird's nests through online channels, and eating bird's nests that exceed the standard may cause cancer.

xu dunming, a researcher at the xiamen customs technology center, presided over the formulation of the industry standard for "bird's nest products". he introduced that according to the relevant standards, woolen swallows refer to products that are formed from the saliva of swiftlets and swallows of the same type, have undergone primary treatment to remove feces, soil and general impurities, are mold-free, and do not add any substances. edible bird's nests refer to bird's nest products made by sorting, soaking in water, cleaning, removing feathers, reshaping, heating and drying, and packaging.

xu dunming said that my country stipulates that bird's nest products circulating in the market must be pure bird's nest, and selling raw bird's nest through online channels is illegal and will be held legally responsible.

"what the anchors say is that it is impossible to ship from abroad. you can't bring even one in. our country has zero tolerance. maoyan may carry viruses and bacteria, and has the risk of causing an avian flu epidemic, so it is banned from market circulation in our country. it must come through a designated port and be processed in a designated area of ​​the port, and it is not allowed to circulate in the market. there is a high probability that raw swallows sold online are smuggled and should be severely cracked down on.”

according to the "xiamen daily" report, on june 26, staff at the entry customs supervision area of ​​xiamen gaoqi international airport seized 17 boxes of bird's nests totaling 17.2 kilograms, all of which were brought into the country by passengers.

public reports show that in recent years, xiamen and guangdong have successively uncovered major bird's nest smuggling cases: in may 2020, the guangzhou customs anti-smuggling bureau eliminated 7 criminal gangs of bird's nest smuggling and arrested 13 suspects during the arrest operation. , about 339 kilograms of smuggled bird's nests were seized on site, and about 19 tons of smuggled bird's nests were verified, with a case value of about 133 million yuan; in 2023, the shantou customs anti-smuggling bureau reported that after more than a year of work, it uncovered a case of smuggling of more than 100 tons of bird's nests and a case value of 16 in a case involving more than 100 million yuan, 19 suspects were arrested and 10 sales, processing and warehouse dens were destroyed.

xu dunming introduced that nitrite is a food additive, but its transformation product nitrosamines are carcinogenic. ingesting too much bird's nest with excessive nitrite may cause cancer."our country strictly stipulates that no more than 30 milligrams per kilogram is allowed, and bird's nests exceeding 30 milligrams per kilogram will not be allowed to enter the country. on the other hand, anything exceeding this standard may be smuggled."

xu dunming said that currently, my country has no national limit requirements for heavy metals, molds, etc. in edible bird's nests and products, and only some industry standards and group standards have relevant regulations. "but for those sold on online platforms, the source is illegal, and the sales behavior is also illegal. there is no need to talk about whether the mold exceeds the standard."

in response to the anchor's statement that "what we sell is domestic bird's nest, which is a primary agricultural product and does not need to comply with the relevant laws and regulations on imported bird's nest," xu dunming said bluntly: "this disclaimer is invalid. the ministry of agriculture and rural affairs of my country has made a targeted reply specifically to bird's nest. it is determined that bird’s nest does not fall into the category of agricultural products.”

xu dunming believes that online platforms have the obligation to supervise these illegal sales and should also bear responsibility for the proliferation of these "problem bird's nests".

products and disclaimer of a taobao store (taobao screenshot)