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If You Dine At KFC or Pizza Hut, You Might Eat Expired Meat

Posted: 07/21/2014 6:40 pm

mcdonalds kfc food processing food scandalA food supplier for China-based franchises of McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, and KFC have been criticized for using meat that has been expired for up to a year, reports Southcn.

Shanghai Husi Food Co. was targeted in a inspection last night at 9 o’clock by the Shanghai Food and Drug Bureau and the Public Security Bureau, which were followed by members of the press including CCTV. The inspection was stalled by security guards for half an hour before the officials and media were able to get inside.

The inspectors found the food supplier provided chicken and beef products to McDonald’s, Pizza Hut and KFC that were expired for as long as a year after their due dates. The products were reprocessed and repackaged to be used again.

The ground was described as “filthy” and was covered in dirty water. Dragon Television had earlier showed Husi Food workers “picking up food from the floor and throwing it into processing machines.”

Xinhua reported that local officials have suspended the operations of Husi Foods.

McDonald’s and Yum, the parent company of KFC and Pizza Hut, have apologized to Chinese consumers and have renounced their relationship with Husi Food.

Yoshinoya, Ikea, Fridays, and Subway are among the foreign restaurants operating in China that have tried to distance themselves from this food scandal by asserting they have no connection to Husi Food.

mcdonalds kfc food processing food scandalmcdonalds kfc food processing food scandal

Photos: CCTV, People’s Daily Online

Haohao
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That Corn Sold On The Street In China? It Is Drenched In Harmful Additives

Posted: 07/10/2014 4:53 pm

street corn fake food safetyWhenever you’ve waited for the bus, you’ve likely caught a whiff of the sweet aroma of corn wafting towards you from a pot over at the the newspaper stand. The mystery lingers: how can something only prepared with boiling water look and smell so good?

After a Henan man got sick after eating three ears of corn in a row, a reporter from the Henan Economic Report went in search of the answer, and it’s not pleasant: streetside boiled corn is prepared with artificial sweeteners and additives.

The reporter said vendors readily confessed to using food additives to prepare boiled corn. Their enthusiasm to disclose the information was based on the fact they consider this an “open secret” that everyone already knows about. One vendor offered this immensely quotable sentence:

There are most definitely additives used in boiled corn.

street corn fake food safetyAnother vendor even gave the name of the food additive market that is popular among vendors. It turns out artificial sweeteners are available for purchase at 30 to 45 yuan each at the Wankelai Foodstuff market. One store owner says artificial sweeteners are big business, and that she sells four to five bottles a month:

What it mainly does is make it more fresh, and helps preserve it longer in which the longer it cooks, the more sweet it smells.

Another store manager said:

This is an additive that can increase sweetness. It is 50 times sweeter than white sugar. Many peddlers will buy this in cases of 25 or 50kg.

street corn fake food safetyLi Chunqi, a botany professor at the Henan Agricultural University, says that using excessive amounts of this food additives or using them for a long period of time will harm human health. Furthermore, Li says it is against the law add sweeteners or additives to raw foods.

If you still have the urge to eat sweet corn in China, you can try and identify which corn has been coated in additives. Apparently “fake corn” will wrinkle when cool, and has a decidedly “gummy” texture. Of course, you could always buy corn at the supermarket and make it at home.

street corn fake food safety

Haohao
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Nanfang Week in Review, June 8-June 14

Posted: 06/15/2014 6:31 pm

foot gun chinese internet meme national defenseHere’s what last week looked like as seen here at the Nanfang:

Sunday:

Monday:

sanyuanli mass protest guangzhou baiyun police riot

Tuesday:feet vermicelli dongguan factory

Wednesday:fire therapy chinese medicine acupuncture

Thursday:

Friday:

Saturday:

Photos: Nanfang

Haohao
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Bare Footed Workers Caught Stomping On Noodles Destined For The Dinner Table

Posted: 06/10/2014 6:16 pm

feet vermicelli dongguan factoryI’m no foodie, but I’m told texture is an important part to the experience of enjoying food. The way food feels in your mouth as you whimsically savor each bite that yields a tantalizing morsel.

But how food gets that certain je ne sais quoi might not be as tantalizing as the taste.

READ: 1/3 of Shenzhen Markets Selling Contaminated Noodles

A netizen called “Incapable of Seeing Straight” has posted pictures online of a Dongguan workshop during the process of making rice vermicelli noodles. The pictures depict many workers surrounded by a lot of vermicelli—so much vermicelli, in fact, that there is no room to put it. Except on the floor. Where the workers are standing. With their bare feet.

And we know that these workers are working hard because we see one of them. Sleeping. On the raw rice noodles/bed of springy noodles.dongguan feet vermicelli

On the afternoon of June 9, the Dongguan Office of Food Inspection investigated the case and identified the Daojiao Tongcheng Rice Product Factory of Daojiao County as being the place where the photos were taken. The pictures were determined to have been taken before Spring Festival 2014. The factory says all the workers in the photos are now gone.

RELATED: 40 Jailed in 3 Years For Food Safety Violations in Dongguan

As a result of the investigation, the Daojiao Tongcheng Rice Product Factory has been ordered to close down and to reassess its food production procedures, reports Yangcheng Evening Report.

And if you’re wondering if you may have eaten some of these so-called “stinky feet vermicelli noodles”, well, you may have. There are 15 Daojiao vermicelli factories in Guangdong Province that have a total daily production of 800-1,200 tons of vermicelli noodles.

Daojiao rice noodles make up 80% of all vermicelli sales in the Pearl River Delta.

We should add that barefoot workers are probably a step up from workers wearing shoes into the workroom, but just barely.

feet vermicelli dongguan factoryfeet vermicelli dongguan factorydongguan feet vermicellifeet vermicelli dongguan factoryRelated:

Photos: cfqn, Caixin via Weibo

Haohao
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Tell the Difference Between Real and Fake Zongzi For Dragon Boat Festival

Posted: 05/29/2014 7:49 pm

zongzi real fake While I’m forced to indulge in my secret love of the universally panned mooncake in a darkened room during Mid-Autumn Festival all by myself, Dragon Boat Festival is the carefree holiday of the zongzi (粽子 zòngzi), a glutinous rice dumpling wrapped in leaves. Only a summer holiday like Dragon Boat Festival can have two festive foods and encourage a playful rivalry over which is the superior one: Team Salty or Team Sweet.

However, as Chinese relive an early millennial fad of the Great Zongzi War of Salty Vs Sweet, we need to remind readers that yes, like every other food in China, there are counterfeit versions that you should avoid at all costs.

zongzi real fake

As you enjoy your short vacation, here are the ways to differentiate between a real zongzi (seen above to the right) and a fake one (left):

  • zongzi that look especially green may have had their leaves dipped in chemicals during the soaking process. The typical chemical additives used are industrial copper sulfate (CuSO4) and copper chloride
  • as seen in the picture above, the leaves of the fake zongzi look unnaturally green. It looks unrealistic in the same way people’s skin looks unrealistic in skin care commercials or on clips of old Max Headroom episodes
  • when steaming regular zongzi, the color of the leaves will darken and get yellow, and the water below will become a light yellow
  • fake zongzi will have a sulphuric smell when cooked, and the water below will turn green like its leaves

We’re sure most people can tell the difference; after all, people lose their appetite when their kitchen smells like the Eye of Sauron. But then, advertisements and pictures on the internet may lead people to have certain expectations on what a zongzi looks like. For example, would you eat this?

zongzi real fake

Happy Dragon Boat Festival, everyone. Make Qu Yuan proud.

Photos: NMG News, XDKB, Sipac

Haohao
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Report: 10,000 tons of tainted rice have entered Guangdong markets since 2009

Posted: 03/1/2013 7:00 am

What do you know, another food safety scandal has hit the region. And once again, it involves a state-owned enterprise.

10,000 tons of cadmium-tainted rice are believed to have entered Guangdong province markets since 2009 after being bought by Shenzhen Cereals Group, Nanfang Daily reported Wednesday (via China Daily).

The state-owned enterprise is thought to have bought the rice from branches of China Grain Reserves Corp in Hunan, the report said.

Food quality supervision authorities in Shenzhen recently discovered that the rice had excessive cadmium.

A supplier in Xiangtanin Hunan recalled 180 tons of the tainted rice. But the recalled rice was resold to a mill that produces rice flour in Foshan, Guangdong province, the report said.

China Daily has more:

Shenzhen Cereals accepted the bulk of cadmium-contaminated rice on the condition that its price be cut, and the company later sold the rice at a higher price to clients that included a rice flour mills in Dongguan, a brewery in Guangzhou, and retailers in Shenzhen, the report said.
Shenzhen Cereals allegedly knew about cadmium contamination in rice as early as several years ago, when it started business with suppliers in Hunan.
The company did not complain and in fact continued to buy in large quantities until the rice market took a downturn in 2009, according to the report.

Crops grown in polluted soil may have higher cadmium concentration and produce tainted rice. Continual exposure of cadmium over a long time may lead to cancer and other health risks such as kidney and respiratory problems.

Shenzhen Cereals Group denied the allegations in a statement Wednesday: “As a responsible supplier, we have never allowed a grain of contaminated rice to enter the market,” Shenzhen Daily quoted representatives of the company as saying.

The group bought 15,415 tons of rice from Hunan Province in May 2009 but returned 13,584 tons that contained excessive cadmium, a toxic metal, the statement said.

Either way, you can add rice to the list of foods to be wary of.

Haohao
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