The rumor of ＂plastic laver＂ fermented. Someone called anonymously to ask the company for money.
Recently, several videos showing "plastic laver" have been widely spread on the Internet. In the video, some people said that laver produced by several enterprises in Jinjiang, Fujian Province is "made of plastic", and said that laver is chewy, urging netizens to "stop eating" and triggering a round of "laver storm". Behind the storm, a number of responsible persons of laver enterprises told Beijing Youth Daily that they had never produced "plastic laver", but recently they all received anonymous calls, saying that they would continue to spread the video of "plastic laver" unless they gave money.
Laver storm
It is widely rumored that laver is made of plastic.
The reporter of Beiqing Daily saw from the three videos of "Plastic Porphyra" transmitted by the Internet that some people conducted experiments on three brands of laver respectively. In the first video, the reporter shredded Ayibo brand laver and soaked it in tap water. After soaking it soft, he took out a few pieces of laver and spread them on the surface of laver by hand. He said that laver company made laver with plastic bags and warned netizens to "pay attention" when eating laver in the future.
In the second video, a woman put Lehui brand laver in a large stainless steel basin for the same experiment, and got similar results. Finally, she also said to netizens, "Stop eating laver." In the third video, another woman experimented with seaweed of Haijiawei brand, and repeated repeatedly that these lavers were all made of "black plastic bags" during the experiment, and said that she found that seaweed could not be chewed in the process of eating seaweed, and said that seaweed had a foul smell. In the video, the woman used a lot of effort to tear the laver to show that it was difficult to tear it.
As soon as the video was transmitted to the Internet, it was forwarded and hotly debated by netizens. Many people said that they "dare not eat laver", but many experts denied that there was no such thing as "plastic laver".
Journalist experiment
The burning taste of laver is different from that of plastic
On February 23rd, the reporter of Beiqing Daily bought three brands of laver from the supermarket, all of which were produced in Fujian, including Ayibo brand laver involved in the "plastic laver" storm.
The reporter of Beiqing Daily soaked three brands of laver in three cups of warm water respectively. After about two minutes, the laver was completely soaked. Subsequently, the reporter of Beiqing Daily took a few pieces of laver from warm water to carry out an experiment, and found that the laver of the three brands all showed a bright purple-black color after soft expansion, which was slightly similar to the common black plastic bag.
After spreading and pulling the laver by hand, the reporter of Beiqing Daily found that some lavers are indeed elastic and unbreakable, and scratching the surface of laver by hand will also make a hissing sound. However, after ignition and combustion, there is no smell of plastic burning.
Later, the reporter of Beiqing Daily found a black plastic bag for burning experiment. After burning, the black plastic bag gives off an obvious pungent smell of plastic, which is completely different from the smell of burning laver.
Laver enterprise
Never produced "plastic laver"
On February 23rd, a vice president of Ayibo Company told the reporter of Beiqing Daily that Ayibo had never produced so-called "plastic laver". He said that the laver products produced by the company strictly implement the food safety standards stipulated by the state, and the relevant food safety monitoring report company has been published on the official WeChat.
Mr. Shi, the relevant person in charge of Haijiawei Company, said in an interview with the reporter of Beiqing Daily that among several videos transmitted online, the laver used in one video was the brand of Haijiawei. "But the packaging bag was opened at that time, so it is impossible to fully confirm that the laver in the video is produced by our company."
Mr. Shi said that every batch of laver produced by the company has a quality inspection report, and farmers in the vegetable harvesting area also have a certificate of self-production and self-sale. What they produce is not the "plastic laver" mentioned on the Internet. As for the situation in the video, it said that the method in the video could not prove the material of laver because of the short soaking time and cold water temperature.
In addition, some aquatic products experts said in an interview with the media that the reason why laver is elastic and chewy is because it contains agar. There is another possibility that the laver in the video is "chewy and incessant", that is, the laver is "old", that is, the agar content is relatively high and has nothing to do with plastic.
Regarding how to distinguish "plastic laver", the above-mentioned vice president of Ayibo Company said that consumers can light laver and plastic bags separately for testing. Compared with the burning smell, laver burning has a special salty smell, which is completely different from the smell of plastic burning.
Behind the storm
Someone called anonymously to ask the enterprise for money.
Mr. Shi admits that after the video of "Plastic Porphyra" was spread on the Internet, many merchants and supermarkets directly removed the laver produced by their company. Recently, there have been many returns, and many customers have questioned the phone, which has a great impact on the normal production and operation of the company.
The person in charge of A Yibo said that according to past experience, this period in previous years was the golden period for laver enterprises to produce at full capacity and dealers to get goods and distribute goods. However, at present, laver processing enterprises in the village are basically in a state of suspension or semi-suspension.
The reporter of Beiqing Daily found that it is not simple behind this "plastic laver" storm. On February 23, the person in charge of Ayibo Company told the reporter of Beiqing Daily that someone had threatened to call the company and threatened to ask the company to pay them tens of thousands of yuan to ensure that the video would not be spread to the network. This is an anonymous call, and the calling number is also hidden by technical means.
Li Ningbo, the chairman of Ayibo Company, told the media that he had seen no fewer than 10 videos of "Plastic Porphyra", which spread at the rate of a new video every few hours. Among them, there are consumers who have doubts, WeChat official account, who is a hot spot, and even people who take the opportunity to blackmail.
A similar situation happened in Haijiawei Company. Mr. Shi said that they also received a mysterious anonymous phone call, and the content was also asking the company for "a lot of money". According to him, there are also a number of heads of Jinjiang laver enterprises who have received such anonymous calls, all of which are "asking for money".
At present, Ayibo Company and Haijiawei Company have reported this matter to the police. On the morning of February 21st, Jinjiang Ocean and Fisheries Bureau convened more than 20 member enterprises of Jinjiang Laver Processing Industry Association to discuss how to deal with the online rumor that "Laver is made of plastic" and report the case to the public security organ.
Regulatory department
No adulteration of plastics was found in enterprises.
On February 21st, Jinjiang Laver Processing Industry Association issued a joint statement on this matter, which stated that recently, some people posted videos suspected of infringing the laver industry in Jinjiang through WeChat, Weibo and other platforms, maliciously fabricated false contents such as "Laver is made of plastic", and found more than a dozen versions, which are still being filmed and uploaded, seriously misleading consumers.
On behalf of dozens of laver enterprises in Jinjiang City, Jinjiang Laver Processing Industry Association declared that the laver produced by enterprises does not have any quality and safety problems such as so-called "plastic laver", and it is a low-level common sense mistake to confuse laver with plastic. Like many vegetables, laver has some differences in taste and toughness due to different harvesting time, so it can be safely eaten.
According to this statement, the fabricators and rumourers of this video will be investigated for their legal responsibilities, and consumers are also advised not to believe rumors.
In addition, according to media reports, Jinjiang Municipal Market Supervision Administration organized a special inspection of laver, conducted on-site sampling for laver companies affected by the rumor of "plastic laver", sent the samples to the laboratory for testing, and checked the relevant tickets, certificates and storage acceptance records. Through on-site inspection, Jinjiang did not find the phenomenon that enterprises used plastics or plastic products.
Text/reporter Huang Xiaojing Intern reporter Liu Sijia
Photography/Hanyu