成都火锅面临监管

Zhang Feng, an expert on lubricating oil at a research institute in Beijing, dined twice at a hotpot restaurant in Chengdu, Sichuan province, during his nearly five-day stay in the city.

张峰，北京一家研究所的润滑油专家，在四川成都逗留的五天期间曾两次在火锅店就餐。

"The hotpot was one of the elements that took me to Chengdu as a tourist with my wife and daughter in the middle of the month," he said. But he added that he had misgivings. He worried that the oil in the hotpot might not be as good as it appeared.

他说：“火锅是我同我妻子和女儿去成都旅游的原因之一”。但他还说，他有些忧虑。他担心火锅用的油可能没有看起来那么好。

According to Li Zhiqiang, a restaurateur in Chengdu, "Recycled oil is used as a soup base in many hotpot restaurants to enhance the aroma."

据成都一家餐馆的老板——李志强表示：“许多火锅店使用循环用油作为汤底以增强汤的味道。”

Now, restaurants will have to change. The provincial Health and Family Planning Commission formulated a compulsory regulation earlier this month to ban substandard materials in the hotpot soup base.

现在，餐馆将不得不改变。本月上旬省卫生和计划生育委员会制定了一项强制性规定，禁止火锅汤底使用不合格的材料。

"The regulation will take effect on Jan 15, and any hotpot restaurant in the province that fails to meet its requirement will be punished," said Fan Chuan, an information officer for the commission.

委员会一位信息官员樊川说：“该条例将于1月15日生效，省内所有不满足要求的火锅店都将被处罚。”

The province announced a similar regulation to standardize hotpot soup base in 2006. But it was only a recommendation to restaurants and did not impose penalties for noncompliance.

该省在2006年曾宣布过一个类似的条例来规范化火锅汤底。但这只是对餐厅的一个建议并没有进行违规行为的处罚。

Under the new regulation, restaurants will be barred from using oils or additives containing excessive pollutants.

根据新的规定，餐馆将禁止使用含有超标污染物的油或添加剂。

"Without regulation, restaurants might use oil from the guts of a pig, cat or dog instead of standard beef tallow. For aroma enhancement they might use spices grown in fields with excess chemical fertilizers or heavy metals," said Li, who worked in the catering industry for 22 years.

在饮食行业工作了22年的李先生表示：“如果没有监管条例，餐馆可能会使用猪、猫或狗的肠油来替代牛油。为了增加香味，他们可能会使用化学肥料或重金属超标的土地上种出来的调味品。 ”

Hailing the new regulation as a good measure to ensure food safety, some netizens have wondered if restaurants will comply.

新法规被誉为保障食品安全的好措施，但有些网友担心餐馆能否遵守。

"About 70 percent of the hotpot restaurants are large ones and buy their materials for soup base from processing plants. If the government food watchdog keeps an eye on the plants, materials from them will meet the requirements," Li said. "The other restaurants are small and might make the soup base themselves. It is difficult to monitor them."

李先生说：“大约百分之七十的火锅店都比较大，他们的汤料都是从工厂采购的。如果政府的食品监督部门能对这些工厂进行监督，则出产的材料将满足要求。其他的餐馆则很小，可能会使用自制的汤底，对他们进行监管则是比较困难的。”