faked/poisonous foodstuff

[magores]

I'm not defending Chinese cleanliness standards, but...

I think most people would be shocked at what happens in even the highest rated restaurants, etc in Western countries.

Those of us that have worked in the food industry at one time or another, just tend to block out those memories when we eat stuff that we didn't grow/raise/cook ourselves.

Don't fool yourselves

[roddy]

Note that both he and Zheng received the death penalty with a two-year reprieve, which in most cases means that they won't be executed and the sentences will be commuted to a lesser penalty in two years.

Brief reprieve. Can't actually see any reference to a reprieve for Zheng though, did he actually get one at any point?

[gato]

Oops, no reprieve for Zheng. I wonder when the heads of provincial officials who accepted bribes for approving medicines will start to roll.

[roddy]

You're getting ahead of yourself, young grasshopper. Few years to go yet before you can award reprieves in this kind of case

Must be the kind of thing that puts the fear of God into corrupt officials. Hell, it's probably pretty frightening for the honest ones.

Oh, and who says Chinese government agencies don't update their websites.

[gato]

Look at these two pictures of Zheng. They look like two different people. I guess coloring your hair does make a difference. Or maybe getting sentenced to death makes one age so much faster.

http://child.cnjxol.com/xwzx/gnxw/content/2007-01/31/content_318127.htm

http://www.ce.cn/xwzx/gnsz/gdxw/200707/10/t20070710_12121909.shtml

[liuzhou]

Definitely no reprieve.

China executes former drug watchdog chief

[IndhuRen]

I'm not defending Chinese cleanliness standards, but...

I think most people would be shocked at what happens in even the highest rated restaurants, etc in Western countries.

Those of us that have worked in the food industry at one time or another, just tend to block out those memories when we eat stuff that we didn't grow/raise/cook ourselves.

Don't fool yourselves

An utterly ridiculous arguement:tong. What about the people who seldom eat out. I always cook my food and I wonder how many years I have lost due to all that pickled vegetables, canned food and instant noodles I ate. Yes I and my friends have started keeping away from imported Chinese food stuff. Now we buy stuff from Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia....

[gato]

The former vice director of the Jilin provincial drug approval agency only got a 15-year sentence last year despite taking over 11 million yuan in bribes. What a difference a year makes.

http://finance.qq.com/a/20060210/000207.htm

人士告诉记者：“吉林省药监局原副局长于庆香在‘地标升国标’时，经手了1000多个批文，一个批文1万元，她自己交代是收了1000多万元。”于庆香因涉嫌受贿2005年被吉林省检察院查办。

“吉林某企业在2003年的时候，一下搞到了100多个批文，很多药品都是一夜之间从无到有。当时批文都是明码标价的，一个批文从20万－50万不等。”该人士表示。

http://news.xinhuanet.com/newscenter/2006-06/30/content_4772818.htm

新华网长春６月３０日电（记者周立权）吉林省食品药品监督管理局原副局长于庆香，因受贿罪和巨额财产来源不明罪被判有期徒刑１５年。

经查，１９９６年７月至２００２年５月间，于庆香利用担任吉林省卫生厅药政处处长、吉林省食品药品监督管理局注册处处长、吉林省食品药品监督管理局副局长的职务之便，为有的企业违规办理药品批号，个人受贿款物折合人民币１００余万元，另有１１００余万元巨额财产来源不明。

http://www.jdwz.cn/newsread.asp?Pic=1&id=14136

一个省药监局局长的寻租良机

[gato]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/12/business/12imports.html?hp

China Not Sole Source of Dubious Food

By ANDREW MARTIN and GRIFF PALMER

Published: July 12, 2007

In fact, federal inspectors have stopped more food shipments from India and Mexico in the last year than they have from China, an analysis of data maintained by the Food and Drug Administration shows.

China has had much-publicized problems with contaminated seafood — including a temporary ban late last month on imports of five species of farm-raised seafood from China — but federal inspectors refused produce from the Dominican Republic and candy from Denmark more often.

For instance, produce from the Dominican Republic was stopped 817 times last year, usually for containing traces of illegal pesticides. Candy from Denmark was impounded 520 times.

By comparison, Chinese seafood was stopped at the border 391 times during the last year.

“The reality is, this is not a single-country issue at all,” said Carl R. Nielsen, who resigned from the Food and Drug Administration in 2005, after 28 years. His last job was director of the division of import operations and policy in the agency’s Office of Regulatory Affairs. “What we are experiencing is massive globalization,” he said.

[laolee]

I actually saw the news clip last night showing the guy soaking the cardboard and mincing the 'pork', it might have been the BBC news:

Beijing, China (AHN) - One Beijing neighborhood "sidewalk stall" selling the steamed buns was caught on tape by an undercover Chinese TV news crew, according to the Associated Press.

This food stand, likely one of many illegally run operations, was found using chopped cardboard, being softened by an industrial chemical, as the main ingredient.

The steamed buns known as baozi are commonly eaten for lunch or a breakfast snack in China.

Baozi is normally made from wheat and rice flour and a filling of pork, usually with added sugar, salt, water, oil and eggs.

The report aired on late night TV in China emphasized the food safety problems in the country in spite of the improvement efforts being made by the government.

Obviously, these operations are in it only for the money, finding any way they can to cut corners by using ingredients or substitutes that are inexpensive and almost impossible to be regulated, according to the AP report.

The hidden camera of the undercover TV reporter found a rundown and filthy building where the buns were being steamed. The ground is found to be littered with dirty water puddles, old furniture and cardboard.

The TV news report showed the reporter questioning the bun maker as to what the ingredients were in the recipe for the boazi.

The bun maker admitted to the reporter that most people cannot tell the difference and states that "It fools the average person."

"I don't eat them myself," states the bun maker.

Ultimately the police arrive and shut the business down. No reports of whether or not the bun maker was arrested were made.

This discovery from this investigative report in China comes on the heels of numerous problems with foods founds to have illegally substituted items that have been imported into the U.S. from China. One such recent instance even involved a nonfood item, that is, toothpaste, in which an ingredient normally used in antifreeze was substituted.

I guess this is related to the rising pork prices that I've been reading about.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-07/05/content_6333968.htm

[Luobot]

And we used to joke about the occasional bad baozi that tasted like cardboard.

Who would have thunk that it's cardboard for real!

... or is the cardboard also fake?

Blog:

http://whatishotinchinatoday.blogspot.com/2007/07/beijing-fake-pork-buns.html

Video news report:

http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/mRQteM-3QlA/

Article:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19723152/

[gato]

The cardboard buns report was fake. The story was too ridiculous to be true. Can you imagine chewing on cardboard and not realizing it? Beware of fake news, though!

http://www.shanghaidaily.com/sp/article/2007/200707/20070718/article_323858.htm

'Reporter' cooked up cardboard-stuffed-buns story

By Alice Gu 2007-7-18

BEIJING TV Station apologized today on its evening news program for a fake report that a local vendor stuffed cardboard instead of pork into steamed buns.

The station said one of its temporary employees was detained by police on Monday. The man, who was identified by his surname Zi, cooked up the report, it said.

"Since the news was issued, Beijing's food safety watchdog and industrial and commercial administration began a city-wide inspection over every dim-sum booth, but they found no illegal deals," according to the statement.

Zi, from a life-style channel with the station, was found to have directed a video that showed vividly how the cardboard-filled buns were made merely with a home digital video camera, the TV station said.

Zi has admitted to police that he brought the pork, flour and cardboard to a residential area in rural Beijing in June and visited there twice, the TV station said.

Zi told four persons at the booth that he was buying breakfast for migrant workers on his construction site and told them to use cardboard pulp as a pork substitute. Zi then filmed the process.

http://www.nanfangdaily.com.cn/southnews/jwxy/200707190020.asp

“纸箱馅包子”被查实系假新闻 北京电视台道歉/造假记者被刑拘

2007-07-19 09:22:37 来源: 南方都市报 作者: 谭人玮

[mr.stinky]

not really fake - just entrapment.

the reporter supplied the materials and requested that the food venders whip up a batch of

cardbaozi for his construction workers. they complied by fulfilling a custom order to the

supplied specs.

the fake part is that the report apparently implied that they commonly used cardboard as

a filler for sale to the general public. no mention of a setup.

reminds me of the nbc report a few years back about ford pickups exploding on side impact. unfortunately, there were no fireballs for the cameras, at least not until the crew added road

flares to the fuel tanks.

[roddy]

I'm now in the odd position of not knowing which is worse, fake news or fake meat.

While I haven't done any tests, I suspect cardboard shredded small enough, pulped and steamed might not be noticeable mixed up with pork in baozi. Halfway tempted to give it a shot . . .

[gougou]

I'm now in the odd position of not knowing which is worse, fake news or fake meat.

How about fake fake news? Now people are speculating that the report about the story being fake is fake itself...

[gato]

How about fake fake news? Now people are speculating that the report about the story being fake is fake itself...

Which is more embarrassing for the government: a small mom-and-pop operation selling fake baozi or Beijing Television making up fake news? I would think the latter.

[gougou]

Good point, gato. But I think it is possible that given the scandals that recently surfaced, somebody up there decided there was enough bad news about Chinese food making the rounds. As foods and similar items bring in a lot of money, whereas news just a little, this move would make sense economically, too.

Fake news have been an open secret all along anyway.

[liuzhou]

Another reminder that it is not only China which makes poisonous foodstuffs.

Don't eat that chili sauce!

"The Food and Drug Administration Wednesday July 18 issued a warning to advise consumers not to eat some brands of chili sauces made during a specific period by the Castleberry Food Company based in Augusta, Georgia due to concerns about possible botulism contamination."

[johnd]

The local TV operator regularly replaces the Hong Kong TV news with adverts when a sensitive story comes up, but you often see the intro before have chance to react. Interestingly enough, they decided to sensor the fake news story.

[mr.stinky]

um, ok, so the news was fake.

but the faked fake news - that could be fake too?

fake fake fake news? oh, that's fake too?

i'm so faking confused.