Food Safety in China
by seth
Recently I’ve been thinking about food safety and food security in China. Stories like this one about the special organic farms for VIP’s, this one about the use of reprocessed oils dredged from drains by cheap Chinese restaurants, and the video at the bottom of this post where Al-Jazeera’s Melissa Chan has a go at the popular restaurant practice of turning pork into beef, have gotten me thinking about doing a video project on the subject.
It’s strange because I’ve always been one to try the local foods, eat the grilled meats from the sidewalk vendor, or the weird hot dog on a stick from the subway kiosk. But living in China for the past year has changed me, and now I find myself avoiding local low-end establishments in favor of a 7-11 lunch, a fast food joint, or maybe just starving. Cooking at home is likely to be a big feature of my life in the coming year.
In the systematic pursuit of cost-cutting across the business spectrum in China, the food industry is no exception, and it pops up from time to time in the international media like the milk-melamine scandal which surfaced in 2008. For those of us living here, it’s an issue that we come face to face with everyday.
EDIT : This might be the best one yet – used condom found in school cafeteria food.
I worked in Beijing from 2003-2004. I remember seeing the headline in China Daily sometime in 2004 about China finally allowing in USA style Genetically Modified Food (GMOs). I left a few weeks later Went back to work in Shanghai in 2008 and sure enough except for the super expensive ‘organics’ all the vegetables now tasted like plastic – just as in America. Best of luck to you wode pengyo.