When people think of food scandals in China, most people think of the 2008 melamine milk incident, in which six infants died and over 300,000 people fell sick, some with serious kidney complications. Sadly, that was by no means the first time China was host to abominable shortcuts when it came to food. Past incidents include soy sauce made from human hair collected from salons and hospitals (2003), stinky tofu fermented with sewage (2007), marinating duck in goat urine to pass it off as lamb meat (2009), and replacing the blood in pork blood pudding with formaldehyde, salt, food colouring and corn starch (2009).
While certain food scandals get cleaned up and cracked down upon by the government, new ones constantly crop up. So what are the ones that are turning consumers’ stomachs nowadays? Read on for the fake and contaminated food in China that is grabbing today’s headlines.
Wolf in Sheep’s Skin: Fake and Contaminated Foods in China
Photo: vancouversun.com
Fake:
1) Rice
News channels in Hong Kong, Korea and Vietnam went wild when it was revealed that some manufacturers were selling plastic rice for consumption in Taiyuan, Shanxi province, in 2011. The concoction, made with a blend of sweet potatoes, potatoes and plastic industrial resin, has mainly been sold to poor farmers. According to an employee of the Chinese Restaurant Association, three bowls of this fake rice is the equivalent of eating one plastic bag.
2) Baozi buns
Chinese officials have come out saying the multiple reports sprouting from Shanghai in 2010 on fake baozi buns were, well, fake – but most of the Chinese and expat population believe that the government is simply trying to save face. The buns are made from a combination of cardboard soaked to a pulp in caustic soda (a chemical used in paper and soap making), powdered seasoning and fatty pork. This type of shortcut is apparently used all over China, although the original report came out of Beijing.
3) Beef
Since pork is quite a bit cheaper than beef, some restaurants are simply soaking their cuts of pork in sodium borate, a detergent additive that gives it the texture and taste of real beef. The really scary part? Only five grams of this sodium borate is enough to kill a child, while for others it can cause long term poisoning, cancer and deformities. Marinating the cut of pork (or, in some cases, chicken) for only a couple hours can be enough to pass it off to the consumer.
4) Eggs
While eggs seem like a difficult item to fake, the practice has gained momentum this year. And while it is true that quite a process is involved, the cost effectiveness still makes it worthwhile for food scammers. So what exactly is in these fake eggs? That would be sodium alga acid, water, gelatine, baifan, sodium benzoate, lactones, carboxymethyl cellulose, calcium carbide, lysine, food colouring agent, calcium chloride, paraffin wax and gypsum powder, to be exact.
Not Quite What They Seem:
1) Wheat and rice flour
China sure loves its melamine. Mixing it into wheat flour and rice flour artificially increased protein levels in dog food (which was pretty much the same reason they mixed it into baby formula a few years ago) that was shipped overseas in 2007. This resulted in over 4,000 dogs dying after essentially being poisoned to death.
2) Noodles
Sweet potatoe glass noodles, particularly popular in certain Sichuan dishes, are supposed to be made of, well, sweet potatoes (sweet potatoe flour, to be exact). This gives them a transparent but blackish, purplish colour. In 2011, however, a few factories in Guangdong province decided to go a cheaper route and make them out of corn flour instead. And how did they achieve that unique colour? By mixing printing ink, green dye and paraffin wax (normally used to make candles).
3) Baozi buns
Consumers who thought buying baozi from a grocery store was more sanitary than buying it off the street were sadly mistaken when reports surfaced of buns that had passed their expiration dates being given new life by the manufacturer. These stale buns were simply mixed with water, yellow food colouring (which has been declared illegal), flour and so much artificial sweetener that it “exceeded national standards.” As many as 336,000 buns were then sold back to stores as new.
4) Mushrooms
An independent study found that over 81% of fresh mushrooms sold at markets contain levels of fluorescent bleach, which is used to make the mushrooms appear whiter and more recently picked. This study was done in Beijing in 2010 and promptly shot down by the government, but subsequent surveys in the media have found that most Chinese citizens believe the original findings. Luckily, this addition doesn’t seem to apply to dried mushrooms.
Obviously the effects of eating fake and tainted food are numerous. And while it is almost impossible to tell exactly how many people are suffering illnesses or diseases from tainted food in China, current Chinese estimates put the number well over 300 million citizens and cost over 168 billion Yuan a year, according to the Asian Development Bank. Sadly, until food safety is (seriously) moved to the forefront of government priorities, these cases will only multiply.
