Chinese food 'made from cardboard'
Pastor Dale Morgan
Chinese food 'made from cardboard'*
* Story Highlights
* Chopped pork-flavored cardboard is being sold as food in Beijing
* The cardboard is softened with an industrial chemical
* The report highlights the country's problems with food safety
* Countless illegal food operations exist across China
* Next Article in World »
BEIJING, China (AP) -- 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.
Steamed buns sold in Beijing contain 60 percent cardboard, a report on
China Central 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.
State TV's undercover investigation features the shirtless, shorts-clad
maker of the buns, called baozi, explaining the contents of the product
sold in Beijing's sprawling Chaoyang district.
Baozi are a common snack in China, with an outer skin made from wheat or
rice flour and and a filling of sliced pork. Cooked by steaming in
immense bamboo baskets, they are similar to but usually much bigger than
the dumplings found on dim sum menus familiar to many Americans.
The hidden camera follows the man, whose face is not shown, into a
ramshackle building where steamers are filled with the fluffy white
buns, traditionally stuffed with minced pork.
The surroundings are filthy, with water puddles and piles of old
furniture and cardboard on the ground.
"What's in the recipe?" the reporter asks. "Six to four," the man says.
"You mean 60 percent cardboard? What is the other 40 percent?" asks the
reporter. "Fatty meat," the man replies.
The bun maker and his assistants then give a demonstration on how the
product is made.
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."
The police eventually showed up and shut down the operation.