Latest China food scare: Bogus buns

[demoleft]

Source: AlJazeera

Fake steamed buns made from up to 60 per cent waste paper and cardboard have become the latest food to join a growing list of health scares in China.

The CCTV reporters found vendors chopped up waste cardboard and mixed it with fatty meat to produce the buns, known as "bao zi", in a Beijing backstreet factory.

In the case of the fake buns the CCTV reporters used hidden cameras to show the lengths the bao zi producers were going to in order to cut costs.

To get the right consistency the cardboard was shown being soaked in caustic soda, a poisonous industrial solvent.



Read more: http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/EB0A60C6-965E-477B-BB7C-07006982E62D.htm

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Considering the efficiency with which China's government shuts and controls media (last example I have: a newsletter shut down, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/11/world/asia/11cnd-china.html) and the readiness with which it denies involvement in conditioning the World Bank report on pollution (http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/07/05/news/china.php) I would expect a strong, quick action against these dangerous fakes.

But of course, executing some faker once in a while doesn't demonstrate you're in control of the situation...

[Eurobabe]

1. Reminder to self: Never travel to China

I have no desire to ever visit this place. :puke:

[LiberalFighter]

13. Tell Republicans there is lots of free sex in China

They will get free food during their time there too.

[Ilsa]

25. They don't want it for free. Dems do it for free. They want the lasciviousness

of paying for it, and making special demands along with it. ;)

[krabigirl]

47. Aww. i don't like their human rights record, or this stuff, but it's a great place to see.

[terisan]

2. A -7 for health and nutrition and a +4 for recycling.New math for the new world order. nt

[Nihil]

7. Don't forget the +2 for population control though. (n/t)

[Double T]

3. corporate china, like their brethren of corporate america, CAN NOT be trusted........

about anything. Products are made to far less than minimum specifications, emissions and pollution from factories are killing hundreds of thousands of people annually, products manufactured contain known and unknown harmful substances, all violations continue to repeat over and over. Interesting how the NEW GOLD STANDARD in worldwide business has become criminal corruption.

[Iris]

22. but at least they are willing to execute gov't officials who help them:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19686498/

[conspirator]

4. Jesus. Unbelievable. No pitty for these greedy bastards when they are hanged n/t

[durrrty libby]

5. The death penalty is barbaric. "Jesus..unbelievable" right back at you

[conspirator]

20. Maybe I exagerated. But still life emprisonment in poor conditions and no pardon. n/t

[silverojo]

45. The death penalty is barbaric

But poisoning people all over the world with tainted food isn't?

My, don't we have our priorities straight. :eyes:

[mainegreen]

6. Hmmm. How long until some enterprising chinese actually makes soylent green?

[Nihil]

8. Have you noticed how popular chicken nuggets are these days?

:evilgrin:

(Actually, on edit, I'd prefer they did that than continue to slaughter all
manner of innocent creatures for the sake of food and "traditional cures" ...)

[youngdem]

10. I am sure it has already been done.

I cannot imagine that thousands of dead Chinese per day are going to 'waste'.

[parkia00]

15. You're joking right?

There was no :sarcasm: tag so I don't know if you forgot it or you are actually seriously believing what you just said? So what are you saying then? Chinese people are cannibals!??! Dead Chinese are minced up into food and fed to the people?!? Next thing you now people will be saying there are human farms in China breeding people to export meat to Mars!

[Coventina]

19. I think the poster was indicating that it might be fed to the

Chinese people without them realizing it.

You have to admit, this stuff gets more outrageous every day. "Soylent green" seems to be not that far away.

[conspirator]

21. Not so impossible. A chinese restaurant in Portugal was caught ...

serving dogs caught in the streets, as beef.

[youngdem]

27. I was saying nothing would surprise me

Sorry, I seem to have upset the Chinese Chamber of Commerce. Next time, I will be sure to use the sarcasm tag for the benefit of those who are sarcasm impaired.

And frankly, it wouldn't surprise me for a second if we found out the Chinese were rendering the dead and using the protein. It is frankly not that big of a jump. There is already human hair in the gluten they sell and the bread they produce domestically, and human derived urea is also used by some manufacturing processes.

So, yeah, I guess I am suggesting that the complete lack of standards in China has led me to assert that it wouldn't surprise me if their complete lack of human rights was, well...complete.

[parkia00]

33. Well I just wanted to be certain

It's hard to tell who's serious and who's simply stirring the pot these days about dubious Chinese products with all the howls of protest about the latest Chinese evils. For the record I'm not the the Chamber of Commerce but just a guy that believes one should be careful not to label anything and everything from one place as bad just because some of those things are.

[Karenina]

35. Actually, it's the SOY SAUCE that's got

HUMAN HAIR in the brew!!! "STRA-A-A-NGE BRE-E-W... killing what's inside of you..."

You can't make this stuff up!

Here, try this:

http://www.sinosplice.com/life/archives/2004/02/19/soy-sauce-from-human-hair

or this!

http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/weblog/comments/4292/

[SayWhatYo]

31. wait, the chinese are on mars?

I want to go... I'll bring my own food though.

[Quantess]

42. I want to go too.. ....

I'll lose weight by not eating!;)

[jmowreader]

37. Go back and watch Soylent Green again

Soylent Green had three themes: overpopulation, the divide between rich and poor, and conspiracy.

Look at what's happening over there. If there's unadulterated food on a Chinese table, it's there because the Chinese family grew it themselves. You've got paper pulp in these buns, industrial chemicals in flour being sold as high-grade gluten...just a new revelation every week.

The next step in the US if this was happening here would be finding out someone's catching cats, butchering them, shredding the meat and selling it as shredded chicken. They eat cats on purpose in China, so if you were selling cat you'd label it as such. Hence, the idea that someone could sell Soylent Green in its ultimate form and get away with it in China, at least for a little while, isn't that strange.

[Quantess]

43. Do they really "eat cats on purpose in China"?

Maybe they do.... I don't know, do Chinese restaurants serve "cat meat" on menus?
I'm so naive about these things. I've never been there, sadly.
I know the Chinese eat cats, but, how big is the Chinese market for "cat meat"?

[silverojo]

46. The market for cat and dog meat is huge

Endangered animals are also routinely trapped, sold as pets, killed for their fur, or even used as meat, to be sold throughout many Asian countries, incl. China.

Animal Planet, particularly host Jeff Corwin, has done a lot of exposes on the endangered animal trade. And yes, domestic animals are on the menu, as well. :(

[DotGone]

9. Was Anthony Wong the baker?

Because I'm starting to get an Untold Story vibe. Soylent buns. *drool*

[kurth]

11. Merely the tip of the iceberg

The vast majority of food suppliers in China are unregulated and rarely inspected.

[gasperc]

12. soylent green, and the efficiency of corporate totalitarianism

disgusting

[fasttense]

14. Ah will the wonders of globalization and the "flat earth" theory ever cease?

[snooper2]

16. I don't feel so bad buying $137 in groceries yesterday now...

At least I know the buns I bought are made out of, um, bread....

[kestrel91316]

28. I buy actual, real, identifiable hard red winter wheat kernels and grind

them fresh myself to use in my bread. And my white flour is organic, US-source.

I have no further interest in eating food imported from ANYWHERE (except of course coffee and chocolate, lol).

[Le Taz Hot]

17. For what it's worth,

my recipe for buns/rolls. Quick, cheap and YOU control the ingredients:

3 cups + 4 Tbs. warm water.
2 Tbs. butter*
3-1/4 cups flour*
1 Tbs. sugar*
1-1/2 tsp. salt
2-1/2 tsp. fast-acting yeast.

For Breadmakers
Add ingredients in the order listed and set to "French" setting. (Note: Dough will be very wet.) After SECOND kneed, take out dough, form into 8 (roughly) equal rolls, place into lubricated baking pan, place damp towel over the dough and place in warm, dry place for 45 min. to 1 hour.
Bake at 425 degrees for 16-17 minutes.

Sans Breadmaker
Add ingredients in the order listed. Before adding yeast, make a hole in the middle of the flour to add yeast. Try not to let the yeast come in direct contact with the water or the salt -- these will be mingled gradually. Either by hand or with a dough hook attached to your mixer, GRADUALLY mix ingredients together until will mixed. Kneed the dough until "fluffy" (dough will be wet). Form in loaf, place damp towel over the dough and let rise for 1 hour. Kneed dough again, section off and form into 8 rolls and let rise again for 45 min. to 1 hour.
Bake at 425 degrees for 16-17 minutes.

*Margarine can replace butter, wheat flour can replace white flour and honey or other sweetener can replace sugar.

[Akoto]

18. No offense, but ...

This recipe is severely lacking in cardboard-y goodness.

[Cronus Protagonist]

29. Not enough caustic soda either.

How could they miss out such an important ingredient?

:P

[Trillo]

23. "Ever eat a pine tree? Many parts are edible."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euell_Gibbons

[Rabbit of Caerbannog]

24. NOTE TO SELF... (and others)

Buy local!

BTW - several U.S bread makers include "cellulose fiber" in their products to up the fiber content. But christ - 60%?! and from waste cardboard? :puke:

[sarcasmo]

40. How and where do we get a list of the companies selling food from China?

I want to know what company puts it's logo on the front of these buns. What company puts it's logo on the front of the tainted toothpaste. This information needs to be plastered all over and told to everyone you know.

[Quantess]

44. Yes it's good for diarrhea, I suppose!

Sh***ing entire tree branches, that is.

[eppur_se_muova]

26. Chinese food 'made from cardboard' (AP/CNN)

***
"You mean 60 percent cardboard? What is the other 40 percent?" asks the reporter. "Fatty meat," the man replies.
***
Squares of cardboard picked from the ground are first soaked to a pulp in a plastic basin of caustic soda -- a chemical base commonly used in manufacturing paper and soap -- then chopped into tiny morsels with a cleaver. Fatty pork and powdered seasoning are stirred in.

Soon, steaming servings of the buns appear on the screen. The reporter takes a bite.

"This baozi filling is kind of tough. Not much taste," he says. "Can other people taste the difference?"

"Most people can't. It fools the average person," the maker says. "I don't eat them myself."
***
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/07/12/cardboard.food.ap/index.html

[PBass]

30. Come on now, give the "free market" a chance to work and it will take care of itself.

:sarcasm:

[lovuian]

32. China trade = poison trade

they are terrorists and our government supports them
http://youtube.com/watch?v=r6D8NsXLDpo

[LibertyLover]

34. This reminds me of the last time I was in China

About 4 years ago my husband and I went to China to bring home our daughter. She is from Hubei province and we had to go to Wuhan, the provincial capital, to finalized the adoption and get her. We were there for 5 or 6 days, eating out at various restaurants. One green leafy vegetable was common in many of the dishes, had kind of a sharpish taste, but was edible, sort of. One of the other parents asked our guide/minder what it was. His response - Wuhan vegetable.

A year later one of my collegues came back from her posting in Beijing and asked how the adoption had gone. I told her the "Wuhan vegetable" story. She laughed and said, oh, yeah, - weeds.

Yum - weeds, it's what for lunch.

We have promised our daughter that we will go back to China with her when she older - probably in 7 or 8 years when she's 12 or 13, so she will remember it. I have to say with reading all the recent stories about Chinese quality control I'm not as thrilled about going as I had been.

[arikara]

39. Weeds are ok, healthier and fresher than corporately grown vegs

We eat lots of wild plants that others may consider weeds. For example, steamed stinging nettle leaves in the spring tastes as good as spinach and is chock full of vitamins. Dandelion leaves are a delicacy for some but I find them a bit too bitter.

On the other hand, cardboard buns are disgusting. I'm off all China products and will stick to my weeds.

[KansDem]

36. This is what I call efficient

...vendors chopped up waste cardboard and mixed it with fatty meat to produce the buns

Imagine...making your food item and the package to send it in from the same ingredient!

[guitar man]

38. damn, I hate bogus buns!!

I always feel so cheated when I find out baby really doesn't have back... :hide:

[GoddessOfGuinness]

41. I guess Buns of Steel were too expensive.