The Color of Jelly

"This jelly, the color is really beautiful." Old Wang picked up his phone and took a picture of the dazzling array of jellies on the counter, posting it on his WeChat moments.

He is a food safety supervisor, and has been in this line of work for almost twenty years. His daily job is to inspect various food stores, checking the production dates, ingredient labels, and whether there are any expired or deteriorated products. He is always very serious, meticulous, and even a bit nitpicky. His colleagues secretly call him "Serious Wang."

Old Wang knows that food safety is related to everyone's health, especially children's. A few days ago, he had just seen the news that a child over one year old had died from choking on jelly. He was deeply saddened at the time, feeling that there were too many hidden dangers in food safety nowadays.

"Old Wang, today you're going to inspect a newly opened snack store." The captain's voice came from the walkie-talkie.

"Roger that." Old Wang responded, picked up his inspection notebook, and left the office.

The newly opened snack store was called "Sweet Temptation," and its store was decorated in a colorful way, like a candy kingdom. Old Wang walked into the store, the smell of various snacks assaulted his senses, making him a little uncomfortable. He first checked the store's business license and hygiene permit, and after confirming they were correct, he began to inspect the food.

He carefully checked the production dates and ingredient labels of each snack, and would occasionally touch the packaging with his hand to see if there was any damage. When he reached the jelly area, he stopped.

There were a wide variety of jellies here, with different colors, some transparent, some translucent, and some opaque. The red ones were like agate, the green ones like jade, and the yellow ones like amber. Old Wang picked up a strawberry-flavored jelly and carefully looked at the ingredient list.

"What is this, it's almost like a chemical periodic table!" Old Wang muttered to himself, habitually drawing a circle in his notebook.

At this moment, a young mother walked over with a little boy. The little boy pointed to a blue jelly, clamoring to buy it.

"Okay, baby, I'll buy it for you." The mother said with a smile, picking up the blue jelly, ready to pay.

"Wait a minute!" Old Wang suddenly spoke up, startling the mother.

"What's wrong, uncle?" The mother asked with some displeasure.

"This jelly, you can't buy it." Old Wang pointed to the blue jelly and said seriously.

"Why not?" The mother asked, confused.

"The color of this jelly is too bright. This color is very likely to have added excessive coloring. Do you know that excessive coloring is not good for children's health?" Old Wang explained, his tone firm and decisive.

The mother became a little impatient and said, "It's just a jelly, as long as the child likes it, why are you making such a big deal?"

Old Wang shook his head, his tone still very firm, "No, as a food safety supervisor, I have a responsibility to stop you from buying food that may be harmful to your child."

The shop assistant, seeing the situation here, also came over and said with a smile, "This uncle, the jellies in our store are all produced by regular manufacturers, and they all have certificates of conformity, so please rest assured."

Old Wang ignored the shop assistant and continued to say to the mother, "Look, the colors of these jellies are too fake, unnatural. Real fruits don't have such bright colors! It might be okay for you adults to eat, but it's not good for children!"

The mother sighed, and in the end did not buy the blue jelly, but casually picked another color, and paid the money.

Old Wang watched the mother and son leave, feeling a sense of relief in his heart, feeling that he had done the right thing today. He continued to inspect the other foods in the store, and did not leave the store until he had inspected all the goods.

The next day, Old Wang came to the office as usual, ready to start a new day's work.

"Old Wang, come here." The captain stopped him, his tone a little serious.

Old Wang walked to the captain's office and found that the atmosphere in the office was a bit strange.

"What's wrong, captain?" Old Wang asked.

"Take a look for yourself." The captain pointed to a document on the table.

Old Wang picked up the document and read it carefully. His face became paler and paler, and beads of sweat seeped out of his forehead.

The document was an inspection report, which stated that the jellies in the "Sweet Temptation" snack store that Old Wang had inspected yesterday all met national standards and had no problems whatsoever.

What was even more unacceptable was that the last line of the report stated: "After investigation, the coloring ingredients of the jellies in this store are completely consistent with the coloring ingredients recommended by your bureau's ongoing 'Healthy Colors' promotion campaign."

The document in Old Wang's hand fell to the ground with a "thud." He suddenly remembered that the blue jelly that had felt so glaring to him was exactly the "Reassuring Blue" that was heavily promoted in the "Healthy Colors" campaign.

And the one the mother eventually bought was "Vitality Orange" flavor.