AP: Beijing steamed buns include cardboard

[kleenex]

Beijing steamed buns include cardboard - Yahoo! News

Chopped cardboard, softened with an industrial chemical and flavored with fatty pork and powdered seasoning, is a main ingredient in batches of steamed buns sold in one Beijing neighborhood, state television said.

The report, aired late Wednesday on China Central Television, highlights the country's problems with food safety despite government efforts to improve the situation.

Countless small, often illegally run operations exist across China and make money cutting corners by using inexpensive ingredients or unsavory substitutes. They are almost impossible to regulate.

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM Cardboard

 

[Katie H]

Maybe it's a measure to incorporate more fiber in their diets.

 

[Mrs. Cuillo]

That's just wrong!!!!

 

[baking fool]

well apparently "heads have been rolling" because this sort of thing....

China To Execute Chief Food Inspector
(AP) The former head of China's food and drug administration was sentenced to death Tuesday for taking bribes to approve substandard medicines — including an antibiotic blamed for at least 10 deaths.

Seeking to address broadening concerns over food, the government also announced plans for its first recall system for unsafe products.

The developments are among the most dramatic steps Beijing has publicly taken to address domestic and international alarm over shoddy and unsafe Chinese goods — from pet food ingredients and toothpaste mixed with industrial chemicals to tainted antibiotics.

Beijing's No. 1 Intermediate People's Court convicted Zheng Xiaoyu of taking bribes in cash and gifts worth more than 6.49 million yuan ($832,000) while he was director of the State Food and Drug Administration, the official Xinhua News Agency said. Those bribes allowed eight companies to get around drug approval standards, it said.
.....

etc

China To Execute Chief Food Inspector, Corruption Charges Lead To Condemnation Of Former Food And Drug Administration Head - CBS News

 

[middie]

I don't need THAT much fiber. Jeez.

 

[kleenex]

I don't need THAT much fiber. Jeez.

Sure you do

 

[middie]

No I really don't lol

 

[Chopstix]

Apparently this news was an elaborate hoax:

TV hoax exposed: yahoo news

 

[Jellybean]

Are ya serious?!True or not true,think I'll make my own pies just to be sure! So was the bit about the executive chief food inspector being sentanced to death fake aswell I assume?

 

[Chopstix]

Are ya serious?!True or not true,think I'll make my own pies just to be sure! So was the bit about the executive chief food inspector being sentanced to death fake aswell I assume?

I'm not sure what to make of your comment which I can only describe as 'mocking'. Plus your are implying that I might be making up this Yahoo News piece -- this is totally uncalled for.

 

[GrillingFool]

What if the story saying it is a hoax is the hoax????

(not casting aspersions on anyone.)

 

[Jellybean]

I'm not sure what to make of your comment which I can only describe as 'mocking'. Plus your are implying that I might be making up this Yahoo News piece -- this is totally uncalled for.

Chopstix,my intention was not to "mock" ,it was mearly a question with a hint of comical sarcasm NOT directed at yourself personally,but the madness of the news piece....my appologies.

 

[jpmcgrew]

Maybe the reporter made it up or maybe he didnt since China has had so much bad press already its possible he did not make it up but they arrested him any way to squash already so much bad press.I dont know why he would make it up knowing he could be excecuted if he got caught. Just a thought.

 

[Chopstix]

Chopstix,my intention was not to "mock" ,it was mearly a question with a hint of comical sarcasm NOT directed at yourself personally,but the madness of the news piece....my appologies.

Thanks for clearing that up, Jellybean. I shouldn't have taken it personally. No apologies needed. We're cool.

 

[Chopstix]

Here are a couple of interesting articles from the International Herald Tribune (Asia-pacific Edition) which are worth sharing with you guys. It is not my intention to defend China's current food safety issues, just to broaden everyone's perspective on it in light of history and the global backdrop.

Excerpt dated July 9, 2007:

Phony fertilizer destroys crops. Store shelves are filled with deodorized rotten eggs, and chemical glucose is passed off as honey. Exports slump when European regulators find dangerous bacteria in packaged meat.

More product safety scandals in China? Not this time. These quality problems prompted a sluggish U.S. government to tighten food and drug regulation 101 years ago, when President Theodore Roosevelt signed the act that created the Food and Drug Administration.

Like America's industrializing economy of a century ago, China's is powered by zealous entrepreneurs who sometimes act like pirates. In both cases there were epidemics of fatal fakes, and regulators too inept, corrupt or hamstrung to do much about it...

Read full article

Excerpt from another article, dated July 13, 2007:


Black pepper with salmonella from India. Crabmeat from Mexico that is too filthy to eat. Candy from Denmark that is mislabeled. At a time when Chinese imports are under fire for being contaminated or defective, records in the United States suggest that China is not the only country that has problems with its exports.

In fact, American inspectors have stopped more food shipmentsfrom India and Mexico in the last year than they have from China, according to an analysis of data maintained by the Food and Drug Administration.
And despite China's much-publicized problems with contaminated seafood, including a temporary ban late last month on imports offive species of farm-raised seafood from China, U.S. inspectors refused produce from the Dominican Republic and candy from Denmark more often.

Read full article