In a country where premium breaded goods are always hard to find, BreadTalk has long been popular with its Chinese customers. But now the Singapore-based franchise has come under fire after an investigative television show alleged the breadmaker is violating several health codes by reusing cooking oil and replacing expiration labels on condiments.

A correspondent at Shenzhen TV’s “Time and Place for the Rule of Law” went undercover working as an employee at a BreadTalk store in the city’s Nanshan District. With the use of a hidden camera, the correspondent was able to record behind-the-scenes footage on how things are run and gain some candid revelations from other BreadTalk employees.

The undercover reporter discovered that the BreadTalk store was reusing cooking oil used to fry doughnuts, with some of the oil said to be in the system for months.  As seen on the hidden camera footage, the correspondent was able to capture another employee saying, “The oil is used repeatedly and we will add new oil into the tank if it’s not enough.” Another employee said the store will only add new oil whenever an inspector shows up at the store.

BreadTalk has since responded on its Weibo account, saying the TV report is completely untrue and that their stores commonly change their cooking oil. A Chongqing BreadTalk store has also responded by saying it changes its oil every two days. BreadTalk also added that Shenzhen’s quality supervision bureau inspected the Nanshan store last Thursday and determined the cooking oil was fine.

The undercover report also couldn’t determine where the shop’s drinking water came from, with several answers from different staff saying it’s either tap water or filtered.  As the report notes, all of the employees drank boiled water instead of filtered water at the store.

The correspondent found that when jars of bread condiments for sale were found to have gone past their expiry dates, BreadTalk staff would exchange their tags for newer ones instead of throwing them out. “Morning-shift staff will inspect the sauces every day and mark the expired ones on labels, but the evening-shift staff will replace them with new labels and continue using the sauces,” said the reporter.

Employees at the BreadTalk store were not in the habit of using vinegar to “sterilize the mayonnaise” used in the store’s popular meat floss bread either, saying, “I’m not going to eat it myself.”

Since entering the Chinese market in 2003, BreadTalk has opened branches in over 50 Chinese cities.

Related:

• Shenzhen Food Safety Crackdown Finds Contaminated Meat, Noodles and Fish
• Worst Nightmare? Shenzhen Markets Caught Selling “Lamb” That Was Actually Dog Meat
• New “Smart Chopsticks” Tell You If Your Food Is Poisonous
• Newspaper: Serving Expired Meat a Problem Throughout China’s Food Industry

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The Taiwanese gutter oil scandal just keeps escalating as mainland cities, including Shanghai, Xiamen and Wenzhou, discover more and more food products containing tainted lard supplied by Taiwanese oil manufacturer, Chang Guann Co.

According to the Shanghai Food and Drugs Supervision Bureau, approximately 8,700 bags of food suspected of using the substandard oil were seized in Shanghai. In Xiamen, about 4.9 tons of food was suspected of containing the contaminated oil, said officials from the City’s Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau, Hong Kong newspaper Wen Wei Po reported on September 14.

Of the 4.9 tons of food seized in Xiamen, 3.2 tons consisted of pork products and 1.7 tons were made up of butter biscuits. The two food manufacturers, Wei Chuan Food (味全) and Triko Foods Co Ltd (盛香珍食品), were found to be using tainted oil from Chang Guann.

Cream cookies…found to have used the tainted oil.

Wenzhou, in eastern China, also uncovered approximately 60 kg of food allegedly containing the tainted oil, which included noodles, beef and sunflower seed oil, the China Daily reported.

Since the gutter oil scandal first exploded in Taiwan in early September (when Chang Guann was found to be mixing lard oil with gutter oil collected from food waste or slaughterhouses and selling it as cooking oil), about 250 food products involving roughly 1,200 food companies and processors were found to have used oil supplied from the company.

In Hong Kong, cakes made from the gutter oil supplied by the Taiwanese firm were sold by 7-Eleven, Starbucks, Maxim, Café Express and Arome Bakery, to name a few. A comprehensive map of the stores, shops and restaurants suspected of using the substandard oil in Hong Kong can be found here by SCMP.

Photos: Central Television 

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A woman is processing gutter oil.

While Taiwan is scrambling to contain the aftermath of its recent gutter oil scandal, Dongguan is facing a scandal of its own, as reported by Nandu. It alleges that the city produced nearly 4,000 tones of gutter oil a month, with approximately 3,000 tonnes ending up on dining tables, which far outnumbers the 700 tonnes exposed in Taiwan.

According to an unidentified executive from Zhongyou Zaozhi Company, the city’s only legally licensed processor of gutter oil (which turns oil from kitchen waste and slaughterhouse byproducts into fatty acid and industrial soybean oil), the company can barely collect 1,000 tonnes out of the total 4,000 tonnes produced. The remaining 3,000 tonnes is collected by more than 10 unlicensed companies, either from the city or manufacturers from nearby Shenzhen, Huizhou and Zengcheng, to process and sell to restaurants or other retailers.

Collecting the oil is not always an easy job. Workers from Zhongyou Zaozhi company explained that some gutter oil collectors had resolved to fight for the profitable, substandard oil. One worker, Xiaodu, said in May that he was threatened by illegal oil collectors from Shenzhen. His nose was injured after telling them that they did not have the right to collect the oil in Dongguan.

Gutter oil seized in Beijing in 2010.

According to the report, high profits are fueling the gutter oil market. One tonne of the oil can be sold for nearly RMB 4,000 ($652), while the cost of collection and processing is less than RMB 1,000 ($163). In total, illegal gutter oil collectors can receive RMB 3,000 in profits ($489).

We don’t know what the health risks are in consuming the oil; but, researchers are apparently working around the clock to find the answer. As reports of food safety scandals continue to develop, we see a bright future for Baidu’s newly-unveiled smart chopsticks, which are said to be able to sense if the food you eat is made with gutter oil. At this rate, we can say this may be the most anticipated new product in China.

Photos: Getty Image; 55bbs.com

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Kuaisou are a pair of “smart chopsticks” equipped with onboard sensors that test the quality of the food they touch. The information is then sent to your smartphone, so you can see whether what you are about to eat is actually safe.

Baidu CEO Robin Li called the product “a new way of becoming aware of the world.” 

Kuaisou can test for oil, water, temperature, pH levels, and nutritional information, and has three main features:

• The device can tell if fried food was made with “gutter oil” or re-used oil by passing a grade of “Excellent”, “Good”, or “Unacceptable”.
• Kuaisou can test drinks for their pH levels and determine the presence of mild acids.
• It can test fruit for their sweetness, variety, and source. Kuaisou are said to be able to determine if a red Fuji apple comes from Shandong or Shaanxi.

Kuaisou will eventually be able to detect melamine in milk products and be able to discern the difference between real and fake lamb barbecue skewers.

The high-tech chopsticks are expected to go into production soon.

Related:

• China’s Google Glass Killer? Introducing BaiduEye

[h/t WSJ China Real Time]

Photos: 3lian, Chinabyte

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Shocked passengers comfort each other

After Shenzhen bus route 310-315 crashed into a cart carrying swill on January 2, photographs of dishevelled passengers snapped by a bystander went viral on Sina Weibo. Initially, it was thought that the passengers were covered in sewage, but it was later revealed that it was swill, kitchen waste that is commonly used as animal feed, according to CRI English.

There were only eight passengers on board and they were sent to a nearby hotel to take a shower, given new clothes and compensated 1,000 yuan each by the bus company. No serious injuries were reported.

It appears the conductor was one of the lucky ones who was standing at the back

Netizens’ reactions ranged from sympathy to schadenfreude. One popular meme was: “The most serious traffic accident in the world,” (a pun in which the word “world” 世 is replaced by the word “feces” 屎 which sounds the same in Chinese).

Others wondered whether this may have been caused by the controversial new traffic measures that took effect January 1.

One netizen urged the passengers to go and buy lottery tickets as outlandish misfortune may be followed by outlandish fortune. Another argued that at least the nation was now short of a truckload of gutter oil.

Passengers wait to be taken off to shower and get changed

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If there is one culinary staple Laowi and native Chinese can agree upon, it would probably be soy sauce. The salty substance is ubiquitous in Chinese cooking and has successfully infiltrated cultures far beyond the Middle Kingdom. However, following a report over the weekend in the Nanfang Daily, you may want to consider switching brands, if not avoiding the sauce entirely.

According to the report, Foshan based Gaoming Weiji Seasoning Food, has been using some very dodgy methods in the production of its soy sauce. Rather than seasoning their soy with table salt as is normal practice, Weji seasoned close to 800 bottles of mushroom flavoured dark-soy, and light soy with a carcinogenic industrial saline solution. The 800 bottles have already been sold to local retailers.

Following an investigation by the Industrial and Commerce Bureau, it was discovered that the company had in excess of 26 tonnes of the saline solution stock-piled in its factory. According to investigators, as the industrial solution is substantially cheaper than table salt, Weiji were hoping to cut production costs, and in turn, increase profits.

The controversy however doesn’t end there. While Weiji is a relatively small enterprise, the company was initially registered by Hai Tian Flavouring & Food Co. Ltd., the largest flavour and seasoning producer in Foshan. Despite the relationship, Hai Tian has thus far denied any corporate association with Weiji or involvement in the scandal.

This of course is not the first time local businesses have been caught replacing common cooking products with cheaper, unsafe alternatives.  Last September we told you about the Guangdong Public Security Bureau’s crackdown on gutter oil. Apparently we can now add carcinogenic industrial saline solution to the list.

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