Don't eat 1000 year eggs!

[masraum]

Those whacky Chinese, always looking for the cheap and quick way out.

Unless You Like Toxic Chemicals, Skip This Chinese Delicacy | Smart News | Smithsonian

China’s pidan, or preserved eggs, go by many names: preserved egg, hundred-year egg, century egg, thousand-year egg, thousand-year-old egg, and millennium egg. You get the idea—these eggs look like they’ve been sitting around for years and years.

While their putrid-looking greenish-grey yolk and transparent, brown egg white may appear to be the furthest thing from appetizing to Western palettes, for the Chinese, these things are a common delicacy. But now, even Chinese consumers have a reason to avoid 1,000-year-old eggs. Thirty preserved egg companies are being shut down for using industrial copper sulphate, a toxic chemical, to expedite the egg-festering process. South China Morning Post reports:

Industrial copper sulphate usually contains high levels of toxic heavy metals, including arsenic, lead and cadmium, so is banned for use as a food additive.

The eggs are usually preserved with baking soda, salt, and quicklime for about two months. The process turns yolks dark green and the egg white into a stiff, dark jelly. Using copper sulphate could significantly reduce the processing time while achieving the same effect.

For now, the companies—one of which produces 300,000 tons of preserved eggs per year—are on hiatus as investigations continue. One official remarked that nearly all the preserved egg companies used this chemical, and he doesn’t consider it such a big deal. ”There won’t be a problem if you don’t eat too many of them,” he told South China Morning Post.

In other Chinese cuisine news, Quartz reports, watch out for chewing on suspect pork knuckles and chicken legs in the country. Some of those chewy treats were sold more than a year past their expiration date after being washed with detergent to cover up their foulness.

I'm guessing the theory is "as long as we get rich, and not too many people die, no big deal. We've got lots more people where those came from."

[Bill Douglas]

Yep.

And that beautiful white cloves of garlic have been washed with bleach to look so nice

[vash]

They make them local as well.


Sent via Jedi mind trick.

[scottmandue]

"Industrial copper sulphate usually contains high levels of toxic heavy metals, including arsenic, lead and cadmium, so is banned for use as a food additive."

You don't suppose the Chinese are trying to breed a super race impervious to toxic metals and posin?

[jyl]

I don't buy any food or beverage from China, if I can possibly help it. Their food safety - indeed, their broader regulatory and legal system - gives me no confidence. When a Chinese company is a supplier to a powerful Western company which is subject to regulatory and reputational discipline, then I figure the Western company will "regulate" the Chinese supplier. E.g. Apple and FoxConn. But with food products, there's no effective regulator, so I buy from countries where poisoning food is considered a bad thing to do.

[911_Dude]

Next thing you know they will be putting poison in dog food and baby formula.

[Tobra]

I would think that to be axiomatic;don't care for balut either, also seems pretty obvious.

[Oracle]

And people wonder why I'm against letting the kids and family enjoy chocolate or other candy when I see is made in China

Did you know that most of the chocolate for Halloween is made in POC?

A lot of them Cadbury or Hershey (can't remember) don't even disclose where their products are made in..

[aigel]

That article reads like an 8 year old wrote it. Western "palettes".

That said, I do not buy any food from China. I have returned mandarin oranges to Costco after I noticed their origin. Same goes for seafood, mushrooms, candy etc. What JYL said.

And what vash said too - a lot of Chinese food is made in California. I can find oyster mushrooms, fresh egg noodles, soy sauce etc. all from CA and the US.

G

[vash]

those eggs are not that bad. i rarely eat them..but sometimes they get by the food gauntlet in my head and it ends up in my bowl of rice porridge. if the chunks are not cut too huge, i just eat them. they taste very earthy and soy saucy..and they are made in HOT herbs that are being composted..well, historically that's how they are made. now i tnink they are cooked in herbs..but in provided heat.

very tough visually tho. the ones i see are made in menlo park california. i hope they are safe.

any import stuff...i look for japan or taiwan origins. chinese made stuff? oh..no. i am not risking it.

it's embarrassing to me. how the people of my ..ah never mind. kicking a dead horse by now.

[Jim Richards]

I would think that to be axiomatic;don't care for balut either, also seems pretty obvious.

^^^ this

[Jim Richards]

any import stuff...i look for japan or taiwan origins. chinese made stuff? oh..no. i am not risking it.

^^^ and this

[stealthn]

Not to mention viagra

[rusnak]

I can eat a lot of things, but old eggs are a no-can-do.

[vash]

They are not old.


Sent via Jedi mind trick.

[rusnak]

I should say "preserved", not old.

I have eaten Vietnamese half-hatched eggs, but the picture in the original article - is that what these are?

[gassy]

Originally Posted by Oracle

And people wonder why I'm against letting the kids and family enjoy chocolate or other candy when I see is made in China

Did you know that most of the chocolate for Halloween is made in POC?

[masraum]

Originally Posted by vash

They are not old.


Sent via Jedi mind trick.

I certainly wouldn't call them new or young...

Century egg or pidan (Chinese: 皮蛋; pinyin: pídàn), also known as preserved egg, hundred-year egg, thousand-year egg, thousand-year-old egg, and millennium egg, is a Chinese cuisine ingredient made by preserving duck, chicken or quail eggs in a mixture of clay, ash, salt, quicklime, and rice hulls for several weeks to several months, depending on the method of processing.

I might be willing to try them if you caught me in the right mood and I knew that they weren't made with Copper Sulfate.

[Rick Lee]

Not a fan. But we do a lot of shopping at Ranch 99 and the like. Never ever had a problem. And ditto for all the food I've ever eaten in China. Never once had the slightest stomach problem and I've never touched a piece of western food in China. But I've prayed for death after getting food poisoning at a fancy Vegas resort, a carnival in Germany and the local Baskin Robins.

[rusnak]

I can't eat a lot of Japanese food, mainly the pickled stuff. And a lot of Irish food is some form of jelly or congealed fat. It's as if they don't have any teeth.