Sweetness Soaring to 8,000 Times? The "Chemical-Soaked Waxberry" Incident — Who Guards Food Safety?

It is now the season when waxberries hit the market in large quantities; the sweet-sour and juicy waxberry is synonymous with early summer. However, recent media undercover reports on some waxberry collection points in Zhangzhou, Fujian, have made countless consumers gasp.

According to reports, some non-compliant collection points soaked entire baskets of fresh waxberries in a solution containing the prohibited preservative (sodium dehydroacetate) and a "three-no" compound sweetener with a sweetness up to 8,000 times that of sucrose. Workers on site even admitted bluntly: "We don't even dare eat the chemical-soaked waxberries ourselves."

Why Is "Chemical Soaking" Strictly Prohibited for Fresh Fruit?

Sweeteners and preservatives are common food additives; why do they become illegal when used on waxberries? Because of "use beyond the permitted scope."

▍Preservatives: Sodium dehydroacetate is explicitly prohibited in fresh fruit

The waxberry collection points involved were found to have used sodium dehydroacetate. Although sodium dehydroacetate is a common preservative, its permitted scope of use absolutely excludes fresh fruit; long-term excessive intake may burden the human liver and nervous system.

According to the current National Food Safety Standard — Standard for the Use of Food Additives (GB 2760—2024), sodium dehydroacetate has never been permitted for use in fresh fruit and falls within an explicitly prohibited scope.

▍Sweeteners: No food additives may be added to fresh fruit

The "8,000 times sucrose sweetness" mentioned in the report basically matches the characteristics of neotame or ultra-concentrated compound sweeteners, falling into the "three-no" product category. National regulations require fresh fruit to maintain its natural quality and strictly prohibit "manufacturing fake sweetness" by soaking in sweeteners afterward.

In this regard, GB 2760 also clearly stipulates:

Fresh fruit is a food category to which no food additives may be added.

Whether it is neotame, sodium saccharin, or sodium cyclamate, once used on fresh waxberries, any dosage is a violation — zero tolerance.

Behind "good looks" and "high sweetness," food safety must never be sacrificed.

CATO Reference Standards — Building the First Line of Defense for Food Safety

As a professional force in the food safety testing field, CATO reference standards closely follow national regulatory developments and market testing needs. For the preservatives, high-potency sweeteners, and multi-residue high-risk substances in various fruit matrices involved in this incident, we provide comprehensive, high-quality analytical reference materials.

CATO holds dual ISO 17034 accreditation from CNAS + ANAB, and provides the following core reference standard series for preservative and sweetener testing:

From field to table, every line of defense requires accurate data as support.

CATO continuously provides high-quality reference standards for food testing institutions, quality inspection departments, and research laboratories, ensuring that every test result can withstand scrutiny.