Recently, the "Food and Drug Administration" informed that the well-known chocolate brand Godiva products were detected as a pesticide "ethylene oxide", which has the risk of carcinogenicity, and immediately announced the suspension and recycling of 6 ice cream products of the brand. According to statistics, the current flow of nearly 20 tons is unknown.
It is reported that the 6 products involved in The Gottiva are from France, covering chocolate cheesecake flavored ice cream, milk chocolate dark chocolate frozen dessert, Belgian dark chocolate ice cream, vanilla flavored cocoa ice cream, caramel coffee dark chocolate chip frozen dessert and dark chocolate chip strawberry ice cream. The net volume is 100 ml, and the best consumption date is from October 2022 to March 2023.
Godiva's official Weibo posted a response on the 12th that in the series of cup ice cream products imported from France, a common raw material for ice cream production, the thickener "locust bean gum" may be affected by ultra-trace amounts of "ethylene oxide" (ETO). Out of prudence, the cup ice cream product line has been voluntarily removed from the shelves and discontinued.
It is understood that ethylene oxide is an organic compound, which is widely used in washing, pharmaceutical, printing and dyeing industries, and can be used as a starting agent for cleaning agents in chemical-related industries. In 2017, in the preliminary collation of the list of carcinogens published by the International Agency for Research on Cancer of the World Health Organization, ethylene oxide was listed in the list of class I carcinogens.
Ethylene oxide is also a broad-spectrum sterilizer that kills a variety of microorganisms at room temperature and is often used to sterilize medical devices, but it cannot be used for food sterilization because the product usually has residues after sterilization. In the national standard "Standard for the Use of Additives for Food Contact Materials and Products" GB9685-2016, ethylene oxide can not be found.
According to industry insiders, ethylene oxide is actually not used as a raw material or industrial additive in the ice cream production process. The presence of ethylene oxide in ice cream is most likely brought in from packaging printing inks or raw materials.
It is reported that Godiva is known as "Rolls-Royce in Chocolate" and "Hermes" in ice cream, which is not only due to the quality of its products, but also to the high price. The reporter saw through the official online mall that there is only one new rich classic soft ice cream currently on sale. The main chocolate gift box is priced at more than 300 yuan, and this year also launched a Christmas gift box worth 1599 yuan.
According to Tianyan, Godiva (Shanghai) Food Trading Co., Ltd. was established in 2009 and has 2 Branches in Shenzhen. According to the official website of Godiva China and the official WeChat, Godiva was founded in 1926 and is a Royal Belgian chocolate brand. In 2009, Godiva opened a franchise store in Shanghai, and in 2012, it opened a China official website and an e-commerce flagship store. In addition to chocolate, GodiFan's offline stores also operate ice cream and so on. Among them, ice cream products include cone soft ice cream, cup and stick products, and the sales channels have been expanded to e-commerce and supermarkets.
In fact, in addition to this carcinogen exceeding the standard incident, Godi Fan has also been frequently punished for packaging, publicity and so on. On September 19, 2021, the packaging void rate of 4 batches of Godiva samples did not meet the relevant requirements of GB23350-2009 "Restriction of Excessive Packaging requirements for Food and Cosmetics of Commodities", and it was suspected that there was a problem of excessive packaging of commodities. In March 2017, Godiva (Shanghai) Food Trading Co., Ltd. published an advertisement using terms such as "national level", "highest level" and "best", violating the regulations, and was fined 200,000 yuan and ordered to stop publishing. In September 2018, GodiFan was given an administrative penalty by the customs of Shanghai Waigaoqiao Free Trade Zone for violating the rules.
Cover news reporter Mu Qi