Last week CNN reported (and we posted about it) that food vendors in Bejing, China were selling steamed buns filled with a combination of "chopped cardboard, softened with an industrial chemical and flavored with fatty pork and powdered seasoning." On the heels of reports of contaminated toothpaste, dog food and frozen fish from China, news agencies from around the world were willing to believe these reports of tainted street food. However, it seems now that the story was fabricated by an employee at Bejing TV in order to get a ratings boost. I've heard of folks in the TV world taking extreme measures for ratings, but this seems to be a bit much.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-20-2007 @ 10:33AM
Buy Fresh Seafood Online said...
Shocking. It is good that Slashfood brings light into this matter and solved it once and for all.
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7-20-2007 @ 12:06PM
MJ said...
Dont know.....I would think that you would realize that you were eating something weird, no matter what they soaked it in.This is past being cheap!!!
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7-20-2007 @ 12:10PM
CarbonFree said...
It's still possible that this story is true, and China may be simply covering up the issue. Think about it: China wants to keep its population as complacent as possible. One more scare can cause problems. I'm thinking this story is legit. China has lied about many things before, how is this any different?
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7-20-2007 @ 8:24PM
Mike said...
CarbonFree what would the Chinese government gain by making people afraid of buying street food? A evil government wants people to be afraid of the "other" not it's own citizens.
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7-20-2007 @ 9:34PM
bdw said...
Hard to be sure, since the Chinese are a "shame" culture and will lie like anything to save "face." This is multiplied by the fact that the government is playing a losing hand and is scrabbling to keep everything under control, trying to hide, for instance, the 20 to fifty serious riots taking place DAILY in the villages. I could see them comming up with a scapegoat, like the late and former head of their version of the FDA.
On the other hand, there is so little actual pork going into those steamed buns that the extra work and risk of making fake pork out of cardboard never seemed quite right to me either; I have had my doubts about this story from day one.
The facts are, however, that there is a tremendous amount of corruption and cheating going on in China, and the government has no real mechanism to control it. Company A makes a product, Company B "adds value," Company C adds the product to it's product, and Company D packages it while leaving off vital information. Everybody is responsible, but nobody is at fault.
I love Asian food, but try to buy local from people I know. I also avoid "great prices" on foods imported from Asia, for the same reason I don't buy the hot dogs "3 for a dollar" at the local mini mart.
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7-22-2007 @ 9:20PM
Edmond said...
Story was not too surprising to me as my folks have told me about the fake egg issues in the Mainland. Especially with the salted duck eggs.
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