China is famous for many things, including counterfeit goods. From clothes and bags to electronics - even entire cities - China has it all. But some “dealers” went further and began to counterfeit food products.
At first glance, rice cannot be faked, but the resourceful Chinese were able to do it. Fake Chinese rice is also called plastic rice. It is made from sweet potatoes and synthetic resin and is very similar to real rice.
Artificial rice is usually sold in Chinese markets in the city of Taiyuan in Shaanxi Province. This rice is difficult to digest and remains rock hard even after it is cooked. It should not be eaten. Eating three bowls of this rice is like eating a bag of vinyl or a plastic bag.
In addition to the production of artificial rice, dishonest Chinese sellers add flavorings to regular rice and sell it under the guise of more expensive rice "Wuchang rice" - one of the best brands rice in Chinese markets. Only 800 thousand tons of Wuchang rice are produced annually, but 10 million tons are sold. In other words, 9 million tons of rice is fake.
When dishonest sellers are not adulterating rice, they add chemicals to the meat of rats, minks and foxes and sell it as lamb. The scheme was so popular and successful that the police arrested 900 people and seized 20 thousand tons of this meat in just three months. Wei, one of the sellers of such meat earned about 10 million yuan alone. He mixed fox, rat and mink meat with nitrates, gelatin and carmine before selling it at the market to unsuspecting buyers.
The Chinese police published instructions on how to distinguish real lamb from fake on the largest microbiology website. At first glance, it is difficult to notice the differences. The white and red parts of real lamb do not separate after the meat is thawed or cooked, but fake meat does.
Tofu is also called bean curd - it is a cheese made from a mixture soy milk and coagulant.
Chinese authorities recently closed two factories in Wuhan, Hebei Province, for selling fake tofu that was made by mixing various chemicals.
One worker admitted that they mixed soy protein with flour, MSG, coloring and ice, and then packaged it so that it was not only as close to the real thing as possible, but also looked like the popular Qianye brand. This is how the plant solved the sales problem from the very beginning.
Fake tofu was widely sold in Chinese markets. Since the fake was sold cheaply, it soon eclipsed the original brand. Deanfa Food Company noticed a drop in sales and sounded the alarm.
After the counterfeit manufacturers were caught, it turned out that they had applied the original laser code to the packaging using equipment worth $1.2 million.
Using soy protein is not the sneakiest thing to do and not all schemes are so innocent.
Another criminal gang that produced fake tofu added rongalit and cancer-causing industrial bleach to it. The chemical bleached the tofu and made it denser.
This gang, led by three cousins, sold 100 tons of the poisoned product.
During a raid on their factory, the police found unsold goods and dirty equipment used to produce them.
Duck blood tofu is a delicacy in China. It is made from the blood of slaughtered ducks. The blood is heated until it thickens, then it is cut into cubes and sold.
Chinese authorities have found whoever is counterfeiting duck blood, this time it was a couple in Jiangsu province. Only in this case the couple did not use the blood of a pig or cow. Instead, they used chicken blood mixed with inedible ink and printing materials. The police confiscated one ton of fake duck blood from them. The use of fake duck blood for tofu is so common in China that people have learned to recognize the fake from natural product By appearance and smell.
There are two types of fake honey: diluted natural honey with sugar, beet or rice syrup, and honey that is more similar to natural honey than natural honey itself. It is made from a mixture of water, sugar, alum and dye.
It costs only 10 yuan to produce one kilogram of fake honey, with a selling price of 60 yuan. Seventy percent of the honey sold in the Chinese province of Jinan is fake. As usual, Chinese newspapers write about how to distinguish natural honey from fake honey.
Police searched several underground producers and seized 38 buckets of honey. China is the world's largest honey exporter. The study found that 10% of the honey sold to France was fake and most likely came from Eastern Europe or China. US Customs Service caught smugglers trying to smuggle fake honey into the US from China via Australia.
Selling fake honey is one thing, but selling dirty honey drinking water it's completely different. Recently, the police discovered scammers who were filling plastic bottles tap or poorly treated water and sealed them using equipment used by popular brands. They also put labels and quality marks on the bottles. Among other things, E. coli and a harmful fungus were found in the bottles. 100 million counterfeit water bottles worth $120 million are sold in China every year. By comparison, Beijing produces 200 million bottles (genuine and counterfeit) every year.
The bottled water scam is not new and has been going on since 2002. The cost of such water is three yuan, but it is sold for ten yuan. Producing normal bottled water costs six yuan.
Fake Chinese rice noodles were made from rotten, stale and moldy grains that are commonly used as animal feed. It is then mixed with carcinogenic additives such as sulfur dioxide to produce the final product. And this is not just one person - 50 factories worked according to this scheme in the city of Dongguan. They produced 50 tons of counterfeit rice noodles per day. An inspection of the other 35 factories revealed that 30 of them were producing low-quality rice noodles. Manufacturers bleached the spoiled rice and mixed it with additives to create triple the volume of rice noodles.
Along with using stale rice, some manufacturers use flour, starch and corn powder. These noodles have very low protein content - only 1% compared to 7% for pure rice noodles and 4.5% for mixed rice noodles. Some pigs fed fake rice noodles have developed weak limbs and other problems.
Clenbuterol or "lean meat powder" is an animal feed additive. It burns fat in animals, but in humans it can cause nausea, heart problems, sweating and dizziness. Its use in animal feed began in the 1980s and was banned in 2002 due to health hazards. However, some meat processing companies still give it to their pigs because it makes their pigs leaner and they get more money for those pigs.
Even worse, the largest player in the Chinese meat market, Henan Shuanghui, was caught doing this. The company issued an official apology for this action and recalled 2,000 tons of pork from the market. Twenty-four company employees were fired or suspended.
In an attempt to minimize the company's losses, it suspended the sale of shares to prevent the scandal from affecting its price. The China Meat Association also tried to downplay the incident to avoid harming the Chinese meat market. Between 1998 and 2007, there were 18 cases of clenbuterol use in China, with one death and 1,700 poisonings.
Fake and counterfeit wines are a big problem in China. China Central Television (CTV) has reported that half of all wines sold in China are fake. According to winemakers, 90% of premium wines sold in China are fake. To combat the sale of counterfeit wines, a center for determining the authenticity of wines has been created in Guangdong province. Winemakers have teamed up with the government to release an app to track wine bottles and boxes to determine their authenticity.
The scam is simple: the fake used the original name, label and design from expensive wine bottles, but slightly changed the logo and name to make it different from the original. Other scammers have used empty bottles of expensive wines and filled them with cheap wine.
Large hotels and auction houses destroy empty bottles so they cannot be reused. During a raid on a wine counterfeiting group in China, police found 40,000 bottles of counterfeit wine worth $32 million. The group was engaged in bottling cheap wine into bottles of expensive wine brands. In 2012, police also uncovered 350 cases of wine counterfeiting in Shanghai. The total amount of forgeries was $1.6 million.
Hairy crabs from Yangcheng Lake are the most expensive crabs in China and it is not surprising that people try to exchange regular crabs for more expensive ones. The real crab comes exclusively from Yangcheng Lake, but there are some clever ways to get around this. Some sellers take water from Yangcheng Lake and soak regular crabs in it for several hours before selling them. Other sellers use chemicals to make the crabs look like those from the lake.
Of the 300 Yancheng hairy crabs sold, only one is natural. In total, 100 thousand tons of hairy crabs are sold annually, but only 3 thousand of them are natural. To combat scammers, the Crab Business Association has demanded that each Yancheng Lake hairy crab be given a plastic ring with a unique digital code. This plan soon failed when licensed Yancheng hairy crab sellers sold digital codes to scammers who sell fake crabs.
Fake chicken eggs appeared on the markets several years ago. They are very similar to real eggs and buyers cannot distinguish them from real eggs by their appearance. Fake eggs cost twice as much as real ones.
The similarity of fake eggs with real ones does not end with their appearance - inside they have a white and a yolk.
Fake eggs are made from gelatin, benzoic acid, alum, calcium chloride, paraffin and other substances.
There are still three-day courses on making such eggs on the Internet; these courses are sold for $150-200. Fake eggs taste a little like real ones, especially if you fry them into scrambled eggs (Chinese cuisine uses quite a lot of spices that can be used to “mask” any taste). However, when frying, a lot of bubbles will appear on the surface of the protein (which should alert the consumer).
Doctors warn: consumption of such eggs causes serious disturbances in the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract and, according to some scientists, with prolonged use provokes dementia (dementia).
Cardboard buns mixed with chemicals to make them taste like pork. The CTV show showed a seller making baozi buns from cardboard. The cardboard was first mixed with caustic soda, which is used in soap and paper making, and then mixed with seasoning and pork.
This viral video was spread by several international media outlets with incredible speed. The Chinese government later said that foreign media took the news too seriously and that the fake buns were actually a hoax. The reporter who filmed this video was arrested. The government said he made the video to boost the channel's ratings.
Chinese “fake” is conquering the world. Counterfeits are everywhere: they come from the pockets of poor students, rest in the cosmetic bags of fashionistas at the bottom of their “branded” handbags, and even fill the shelves of children's stores. But these are still flowers. Now Chinese counterfeits have reached the kitchen. Alarming news about fake rice made from... plastic is increasingly appearing online. This simple test will help you recognize a fake and avoid eating synthetics for dinner.
It’s safe to say: by 2017, China had learned to counterfeit absolutely everything. It seems that not today or tomorrow they will start cloning people, no matter what ethical standards say. This year, many revealing videos have appeared on the Internet about how fake rice is “stamped” in factories in China and Vietnam. According to eyewitnesses, fake cereals are made from potato starch with a small amount of plastic for perfect whiteness and elastic shape. Although the percentage of plastic cannot be large due to unprofitability, the very thought of synthetic rice is somehow unappetizing. Therefore, it is better to (literally) test rice of suspicious origin for strength. And give him a “culinary inquisition” with tests like this.
Counterfeit test #1: water test
The simplest and affordable way identify the impostor. Pour water over the rice, stir with a spoon and leave for a couple of minutes. Real rice will remain at the bottom, while rice made from starch and plastic will float to the surface. True, the reliability of the water test is not so great: even the most real, but thoroughly dried rice can also float.
Counterfeit test #2: trial by fire
This test should be performed with extreme caution. Take a small amount of rice (a spoon will be enough) and set it on fire. Did you smell the smell of burnt plastic? Then it's better to cook something else for dinner.
Counterfeit test #3: mold test
Boil a small amount of rice, cool and place in an airtight container. Do not put it in the refrigerator. Forget about the daily dish for 2-3. Ordinary rice will become moldy, but “plastic” rice will remain fresh and appetizing. Of course, you can’t eat either the first sample or the second. But this is the most reliable way to check the contents of the package for naturalness.
Despite the abundance of reports of counterfeits, rice suppliers assure that this is just an urban legend. Its goal is to convince consumers to buy only locally sourced products. And, for example, in North Korea and the Philippines, “fake” rice exists quite legally: it is made from maize, which is cheaper in those parts. But trust or check - decide for yourself.
By the way, they even invented it to combat “fake”. It’s just a pity that he doesn’t know how to work with food yet.
For those who are not in the know, here is the news from the Korean Times. It turns out that plastic rice is produced in China, which is shipped abroad in large quantities.
This rice is not entirely synthetic. It is based on potato starch, to which plastic is added so that it holds the desired shape. Eating a portion of this rice is equivalent to eating a plastic bag. Therefore, before eating rice, it is advisable to check it. Perhaps such a miracle of the world is already being produced here. We have prepared several tests to help you determine the quality of rice.
Rice Quality Tests
Water test
Add a large tablespoon of rice to a bowl of cold water and stir vigorously. If the rice settles to the bottom after a while, everything is fine. If the grains float on the surface, be careful!
Fire test
Light the rice with a match. The fake one will immediately catch fire and smell like burnt plastic!
Mortar test
Grinding a few grains in a mortar turns real rice into white flour. The artificial rice will turn out to be a slightly yellowish mass.
Mold test
If you want to know if your cooked rice is safe, place some in an airtight container in a warm place. After a few days, mold will appear on real rice. But fake rice will be as fresh as fresh.
We have all heard more than once about products that are often counterfeited. Shrimp, chocolate, cottage cheese, rice...
We'll talk about the latter today. For those who are not in the know, here is the news from the Korean Times. It turns out that plastic rice is produced in China, which is shipped abroad in large quantities. This rice is not entirely synthetic. It is based on potato starch, to which plastic is added so that it holds the desired shape. Eating a portion of this rice is equivalent to eating a plastic bag. Therefore, before eating rice, it is advisable to check it.
Perhaps such a miracle of the world is already being produced here. We have prepared several tests to help you determine the quality of rice.
Rice Quality Tests
Water test
Add a large tablespoon of rice to a bowl of cold water and stir vigorously. If the rice settles to the bottom after a while, everything is fine. If the grains float on the surface, be careful!
Fire test
Light the rice with a match. The fake one will immediately catch fire and smell like burnt plastic!
Mortar test
Grinding a few grains in a mortar turns real rice into white flour. The artificial rice will turn out to be a slightly yellowish mass.
Mold test
If you want to know if your cooked rice is safe, place some in an airtight container in a warm place. After a few days, mold will appear on real rice. But fake rice will be as fresh as fresh.
By checking the rice in these ways, you can find out whether you purchased a quality product.
According to the Sovkusom.ru portal, “the latest invention of the Chinese is simply stunning, because they have begun to produce artificial rice. And not from anything, but from real plastic! Now you don’t have to wait for the harvest to ripen, because rice can be easily made in the most ordinary factory in just a few hours.
...This rice is not completely synthetic, it is made from potato starch, and plastic is needed to give it the shape of a grain of rice. But the presence of starch in plastic rice does not make it natural, and chefs who have worked with this invention say that eating a bowl of this grain is like eating lunch in a plastic bag.
Fortunately, you can distinguish real rice from artificial rice even with the naked eye. The fact is that synthetic “grains of rice” are almost all the same and have an ideal shape.
It is not yet known exactly how eating plastic rice affects the human body, but... it is clear that it will not bring us anything good. Nevertheless, there is a great demand for this rice on the market, because it costs... pennies, so sellers who want to earn more are happy to offer such a product. We hasten to reassure you: this product has not yet reached the shelves of our supermarkets (this statement is refuted by the attached video, where even a specific trademark- M.D.).
Once again we are amazed by the inventions of unscrupulous manufacturers from China: fake shrimp, plastic rice... Be more careful about what exactly you buy.
Mikhail Delyagin noted: “It cannot be completely ruled out that this news is an element of competition with a certain manufacturer, whose trademark is presented in the video. However, one cannot help but pay attention to the plausibility of this terrible news: on the one hand, the increased quality of modern Chinese goods is by no means excludes the most wild and monstrous fakes, and on the other hand, the Russian state, represented by Rospotrebnadzor and “law enforcement” agencies, demonstrates almost complete indifference to the health of the people.
And, if we can be exterminated by the cannibalistic liberal reform of medicine and the destruction of the social sphere, if we can be poisoned with industrial palm oil (thus discrediting what saves us from diseases of cardio-vascular system food Palm oil), - who will stop oligarchs of various stripes and calibers, with the support of liberals and other corrupt officials in power, from poisoning us with plastic rice? Certainly not Rospotrebnadzor and countless prosecutors.
P.S. Those who like to talk about the fact that all organic matter burns, and in the video there is ordinary rice - it burns without a bright blue flame and the formation of a black intumescent mass. Rice in a spoon, of course, burns, but, unfortunately, in a different way."
