Health scare in China puts retailers in panic mode

Even if you've had only a passing interest in wine news over the past year you probably read about the emergence of China as the new superpower when it comes to achieving unheard-of prices for the world's great wines.
Top-line first-growths from Bordeaux are now so valuable to buyers in China that collectors the world over are choosing to sell their carefully cellared treasures in Hong Kong rather than in the United States and Britain as was the norm.
For tiny producers, including New Zealand, cracking China is being seen as a salient solution to our flagging fortunes.
But although China may now boast 800,000 millionaires, most of its wine buyers appear to fit firmly in the budget category, which has led to wineries popping up across the continent producing cheap wine for the local palates - and those people may have been consuming a lot of harmful additives.
It was reported in the China Standard that dozens of wineries in Changli County in the province of Hebei (an area known as China's Bordeaux) have been closed and bottles are being pulled from store shelves, with six people detained for producing wines suspected of containing toxic substances.
Changli County produces a third of mainland Chinese wine and there is real concern among authorities as the country gears up for its New Year and Lunar New Year festivities when people buy more alcohol.
Apart from the occasional head-crushing hangover, here in New Zealand we can take comfort in the knowledge that our wines are harmless.
Modern winemaking in New Zealand prides itself on being as clean, green and authentic as possible as our major export markets have very strict rules regarding spray residues and additive audits.
But as we've seen from the tragic 2008 San Lu melamine-tainted milk formula scandal, China has a sickening food safety record.
It has been alleged that wineries doctor products with sugar water, colouring agents and artificial flavouring before falsely using famous brand names on the bottles.
The exact nature of the additives hasn't been revealed, but the Global Times quoted leading wine industry expert Huang Weidong as saying the additives may cause cardiac irregularities and headaches and are possibly carcinogenic. Understandably, this has Chinese wine retailers in a state of panic.
More than 5000 boxes of wine have been seized, but there has not yet been any indication of how much adulterated wine remains on shop shelves.
Funds have also been frozen from corporate accounts.
The Chinese Government is acting swiftly as it faces increasing pressure from its people and the international community to improve its standards of food and medicine production.