Translated by Claude, edited by Sinocism.com

Source: Yicai | Byline: Ma Xiaohua 马晓华 | August 24, 2026

Sulfur dioxide is another category of preservative worth attention, especially prominent in vegetables and fruit

二氧化硫也是值得关注的一类保鲜剂，在蔬菜水果领域尤为突出

Compared with other leafy vegetables, napa cabbage is already one of the more storable varieties. But an undercover video — showing buyers dipping the roots of napa cabbage in formaldehyde solution to "preserve" them before loading for transport — set off attention across the internet.

相较于其他叶菜，白菜已属于较耐储存的品种之一。但一则暗访视频——收购商在装车运输前，将大白菜根部蘸入甲醛溶液以“保鲜”——引爆了全网关注。

"Formaldehyde is a banned preservative, and legitimate large vegetable producers and suppliers generally do not use it. However, some small vegetable bases may engage in this kind of violation in order to cut transport costs and maintain freshness. But the vast majority of production bases would not do this; more preservative abuse problems occur in the intermediate stages. From planting to the table, vegetables pass through at least 2 to 4 intermediate wholesalers, circulation takes a long time, and losses are considerable," the head of a vegetable base said.

“甲醛属于禁用的保鲜剂，正规的大型蔬菜生产和供应商通常不会使用。不过，一些小规模蔬菜基地，为了压低运输成本并维持鲜度，才可能出现这类违规操作。但绝大多数生产基地不会这样做，更多保鲜剂滥用问题发生在中间环节。蔬菜从种植到餐桌，至少需要经手2至4个中间批发商，流通时间较长，损耗也相当大。”一位蔬菜基地负责人表示。

Many circulation stages, long duration

流通环节多、耗时长

Unlike many industrial products, vegetables remain "living organisms" after harvest. The essence of preservation and refrigeration is a race against time, slowing their progress toward senescence and decay.

与许多工业制品不同，蔬菜采摘后依然是“活的生命体”。保鲜与冷藏的本质，就是与时间赛跑，延缓其走向衰老和腐败的进程。

The vegetable base head explained that the circulation chain for vegetables from field to table is one of the chains with the most links and the most complex systems in the entire field of commodity circulation today. An ordinary vegetable typically goes from scattered farmers to origin brokers, then through primary, secondary, and even tertiary wholesale markets in successive transfers, before finally reaching retailers, with at least 2 to 4 layers of wholesale agents in between. This multi-tier distribution model lengthens turnover time and pushes up final prices, but it is also determined by the "delicate" nature of vegetables themselves — high water content, tender tissue, and post-harvest loss rates as high as 20%–30%. Add to that China's extremely fragmented production structure dominated by smallholder farmers, which forces the supply chain to rely on dense intermediate nodes to complete rapid aggregation, grading, and distribution, striving to deliver perishable products to consumers in the shortest possible time. Thus a circulation system with many links is an objective reality.

上述蔬菜基地负责人介绍，蔬菜从田间到餐桌的流通链条，堪称当前商品流通领域中环节最多、体系最复杂的链条之一。一颗普通蔬菜通常要经历从分散农户到产地经纪人，再经一级、二级乃至三级批发市场层层转运，最终才到达零售商手中，中间至少包含2到4层批发代理环节。这种多级分销模式拉长了流转时间、推高了终端价格，却也是由蔬菜本身“娇贵”的特性所决定的——其含水量高、组织脆嫩，产后损耗率高达20%—30%。加之中国以小农户为主的生产格局极为分散，迫使供应链必须依赖密集的中间节点来完成快速汇集、分级与分销，力求在最短时间内将易腐产品送达消费者手中。因此，环节繁多的流通体系是一个客观存在。

A study, "Research on Value Creation and Benefit Distribution in Chongqing's Vegetable Supply Chain," found that total costs in the circulation stages can account for half of the vegetable price or even more.

一份针对《重庆市蔬菜供应链价值创造及利益分配研究》发现，流通环节的总成本能占到菜价的一半甚至更高。

"The problems may occur more in the secondary and tertiary wholesale and sales stages; once vegetables enter retail, they want the preservation time to be as long as possible," the vegetable base head said.

“问题可能更多出现在二级、三级批发销售环节，进入零售后，他们更希望保鲜时间越长越好。”上述蔬菜基地负责人表示。

How to extend from the place of origin and primary wholesale markets to the more downstream circulation stages, and truly achieve full-chain coverage, poses a renewed challenge for supervision.