China Voice: Consumers' rights to know should be guaranteed BEIJING, Nov. 22 -- An official investigation has confirmed that a domestic liquor brand's products contained excessive levels of plasticizer. Experts say it could pose risks to human's immune and reproductive systems. The Hunan provincial administration of quality and technological supervision said the investigation results show that liquor samples from Jiugui Liquor Co., Ltd. contained 1.04 mg of dibutyl phthalate (DBP) per kg, one kind of plasticizer. The figure is much higher than the 0.3 mg per kg standard, a regulatory limit set by the Ministry of Health in June 2011. It has been 17 months since the China Alcoholic Drinks Association (CADA) knew liquor products contained plasticizer, according to its own statement on Monday. However, the public only got to know the fact until a media report unraveled the Jiugui incident on Monday. As a social intermediary, an industry association should serve as a bridge linking consumers and enterprises. As the CADA did not tell consumers what was happening, the public's right to be informed was badly damaged. At a time when worries about food safety, one of the biggest concerns for Chinese consumers, are high. Information transparency is key to the food industry's development. If people have lost confidence, the industry is doomed to fail. It reminds the Chinese people of the milk scandal in 2008. Until now, foreign brands still take the lion's share of China's baby formula market. This is because Chinese dairy producers are feeling the