墨汁、染料、漂白、石蜡和有毒化学物质：这些只是其中几样最近在中国食品中发现的物质。尽管中国政府誓言要打击污染食品，但这些物质还是再次引起人们对食品安全的担忧。
Why is China having such trouble making its food safe?
Sean Yong/Reuters2011年4月10日在浙江金华，一名员工一个火腿一个加工厂里工作。为何中国确保食品安全会如此困难呢？
While China is no stranger to food scandals, a spate of food contamination cases brought to light over the past month has been shocking even to the most jaded of observers here. Over the past few days, health authorities in the southern province of Guangdong shut down 17 noodle makers after they were discovered mixing ink and wax to their dough. Meanwhile, over the weekend, nearly 300 people in the city of Changsha were reportedly sickened after eating meat contaminated with the banned 'skinny meat' additive clenbuterol, the subject of a meat industry crackdown in March.
虽然中国并非第一次出现食品安全丑闻，但即便是最见怪不怪的观察人士也会对过去一个月曝光的一连串食物中毒事件感到震惊。过去几天，广东省卫生部门发现17家粉条企业的粉条混有墨汁和石蜡，随即责令这些企业关门。同时据报道称，上周末长沙市近300人食用含有被禁的瘦肉精添加剂后患病，瘦肉精是政府3月份整顿肉类行业行动的主要打击对象。
In perhaps the most bizarre case, also in Changsha, a number of consumers earlier this month walked into their kitchens at night to discover their store-bought pork was glowing in the dark.
最离奇的可能是，本月早些时候同样是在长沙，一些消费者晚上走进自家的厨房时发现从商店买来的猪肉竟然在黑暗中发光。
Beijing has struggled with food safety for years. The problem appeared to come to a head in 2008, when milk tainted with the industrial chemical melamine killed at least six children, sickened tens of thousands of others in 2008 and appeared to shock the government into taking decisive action. But the melamine eventually reappeared in the Chinese food supply, along with a host of other chemicals and illegal additives, leading many observers to wonder why China can't seem to solve such a fundamental problem.
中国与食品安全问题展开斗争已经多年。这个问题在2008年变得非常紧要，当时含有工业化学物质三聚氰胺的牛奶导致至少六名儿童死亡，数万人患病。政府似乎也受到震惊并采取果断行动。但三聚氰胺最终又再次现身，与其他多种化学物质和违法添加剂一起出现在中国食品供应中，许多观察人士因此想知道，为何中国似乎无法解决这样一个根本问题。
One of the biggest issues is the drive to make a buck at any cost, says Lester Ross, a Beijing-based attorney with U.S. law firm WilmerHale. Some companies see that by using additives, they can cut overhead costs or boost profit margins, and they merely aren't thinking about the affects the additives will have on consumers, Mr. Ross says.
美国WilmerHale律师事务所驻北京律师罗斯（Lester Ross）说，最大的一个问题在于不择手段赚钱的驱使。罗斯说，一些企业认为，用了添加剂就可以削减经营成本或提高利润率，他们几乎不考虑这些添加剂会对消费者造成何种影响。
The answer to that, according to Mr. Ross, is an education blitz. China has the ability to plaster its subways, bus stations and even television screens with messages and advertising that lets all people know the dangers involved using chemical additives in food.
罗斯认为解决的办法是宣传教育。中国有能力在地铁站、公交站甚至电视上发布信息或广告，让所有人都知道在食品中使用化学添加剂带来的危险。
Local media reports of illnesses related to chemical consumption have helped, Mr. Ross says. A flood of news stories in recent days have informed Chinese consumers that meat containing clenbuterol may be leaner, but it may also cause headaches, nausea, and heart palpitations, while vegetables with sodium nitrite may grow faster, but they can also cause cancer.
罗斯说，当地媒体有关摄入化学品致病的报导有一定的帮助。近几天中国消费者从大量的新闻报导中得知，含瘦肉精的猪肉可能更瘦，却也可能引起头痛、恶心、心悸，含亚硝酸钠的蔬菜可能长得更快，但也可能致癌。
In a push for greater clarity, China's Ministry of Health is planning to revise and make public its list of legal food additives by the end of the year, while also publishing a black list of illegal additives, the state run China Daily reports.
据《中国日报》报导，为增强透明度，中国卫生部计划年底前修改并公布合法食品添加剂名单，同时还将公布非法添加剂的黑名单。
But education is only part of the problem. Another issue, according to Mr. Ross, is that there are too many cooks in the kitchen -- or rather too many bureaucracies handling food safety. The Ministry of Health is the lead agency on food safety issues, he explains, but the State Administration for Industry and Commerce is also involved, as are the State Food and Drug Administration and the Ministry of Agriculture.
不过，教育只是一个方面。据罗斯说，另外一个问题是监管食品安全的政府机构过多。他解释说，卫生部是食品安全问题的主要监管机构，但国家工商行政管理总局、国家食品药品监督管理局和农业部也参与食品安全的监管。
Struggles with food safety are not a specifically Chinese problem. Many countries, including the U.S. and Japan, have gone through similar growing pains in the food industry, says Wu Ming, a professor at Beijing University's school of public health.
食品安全问题并不是只有中国才有。北京大学公共卫生学院教授吴明说，包括美国和日本在内的很多国家在食品行业都经历过类似的“成长的烦恼”。
Sanitation and contamination issues permeated the food manufacturing and processing U.S. in the late-19th century. As China law scholar Stanley Lubman recently noted, it wasn't until 1906, when Upton Sinclair published "The Jungle," a book that unveiled the horrific standards of meat-packing plants of Chicago, that the U.S. began to wake up to its food safety problems.
19世纪末，卫生和污染问题在美国的食品生产和加工行业非常普遍。正如中国法律问题学者鲁布曼(Stanley Lubman)最近指出的，直到1906年厄普顿•辛克莱(Upton Sinclair)出版了《屠场》(The Jungle)一书，美国才开始意识到食品安全问题。《屠场》揭露了芝加哥肉类包装厂骇人听闻的标准。
The big difference between the U.S. and China is size, Ms. Ming says, adding that the quantity of companies involved in China's food industry will make for tougher regulatory obstacles.
吴明说，美国和中国的一大差别是行业的规模。她还说，中国食品行业中的公司数量给监管带来了更大的障碍。
"It's impossible to lessen such problems overnight," Mrs. Ming said. "It will take many years."
吴明说，这类问题不可能一夜减轻，这需要很多年的时间。
