Cartoon image of Snow white and Mengniu. Caption says “Mengniu, stepmother’s new choice”

The website of Mengniu hacked

Mengniu, one of the largest dairy product companies in China, has yet been involved in a scandal. Mengniu has had a batch of milk from  with M1 bacteria level 1.4times over the authorised limit being sold. That bacteria is highly cancerogenic. In Shanghai, they are saying the Mengniu milk sold are from different supplying area, therefore safe for consumption.

However, more damaging is the reaction of the company to the scandal. A bare official apology was posted on its website following the discovery of the batch of spoiled milk. Worse, when asked about it, Mengniu said that it came from mold in cow’s fodder, which they cannot control, trying to make similarities with the law not allowing people to kill, but people still do kill others, and saying there is no farm where the fodder can’t get moldy, just like if you are not careful your bun (baozi) at home can get moldy.

This has angered the people more due to their lack of pro-active response and responsibility, with questions being asked such as: why only one batch got moldy? Why the cows affected by aflatoxin only produced one day of tainted milk? How come it’s only one day’s production? If one cannot trace it to the farm that produced the tainted milk, how can one ascertain that it was the fodder that caused it?

A small interview of buyers in supermarkets on TV revealed that the people no longer trust the brand and do not plan to buy its products in the near future. Unsurprisingly, this has caused harm to other local producers also, as buyers are more willing to buy imported milk these days.

It’s a hard thing to decide on how much that will affect me. On the one hand, at home I have been using milk powder imported from Australia (thanks mum and dad for bringing these last time) during the last couple of years or so. On the other hand, when I go and have HK-style milk in restaurants or have the milk bubble/pearl tea that are sold at almost every corner of the street, I have no control over what milk is being used. And those pearl tea are so delicious. Dang!

As I said before, food hygiene sucks big time in China. It will probably play a big role in my health and lifespan here. Nothing else to add to this.

I thought about this when I ran across a post from a friend on her mini-blog. It is something very common for the foreigners living in China, and even by many of those short-term and long-term tourists. Trying and enjoying the food prepared and sold by peddlers and hawkers on the street. But here in China, the food industry is continuously rocked by scandals of violation of health hygiene and usage of toxic materials in many food or items used for food preparation.

For those who want to know a bit more about what might be in the food bought from the stall across the street, let’s continue.

10 Street snacks that might possibly be contaminated:

1. Pungent tofu 臭豆腐 — iron sulphate
2.  Hot Pot 麻辣烫 — recycled dirty/heavy oil (as in recollected and recycled from washing pots and pans, or engines!!!)
3.  ’Fetus’ egg 毛鸡蛋 — parasites [sorry, no English term for that snack, it's egg that during incubation suffered a change in temperature]
4.  Kebab 烤肉串 — dead sick pork meat
5.  Deep-fried dough cakes and sticks 油饼油条 — excessive Aluminium, recycled dirty oil
6.  Seafood stalls海鲜排挡 — parasites, mercury formaldehyde
7.  Fruit/jelly pancake 煎饼果子 – recycled dirty oil, expired ham [snack is a thin pancake where you put other food or dough sticks within it as fillings]
8.  Baked sweet potato 烤红薯 – chemical barrels, black spot germs
9.  Fried chicken wings 炸鸡翅 – potato starch pills, stinky wings
10.  Steamed buns 包子 – dead sick pork meat, neck meat (since it’s the place where the blood is drained, if not properly washed and may contain lots of germs and viruses)

It is not an exhaustive list of food or possible contaminated items. I remember stories of buns being made out of carton, ingredients kept in really unhygienic conditions (think broken down factory, bogged toilets, water from rusted leaking pipes, etc together), kebab meat being supposedly from rats, pork/beef meat being faked as the other (I forgot which was fake), fake sauce, ….  It’s like playing Russian roulette everyday when buying food here in China.

Even the vegetables are subject to excessive pesticides, pets walking around the food, etc. Only the high members of the Party can escape this as they buy their rice and organic vegetables from exclusive and carefully screened suppliers. The rice/vegs cost more but are definitely of good quality and untainted. The common people basically do not have access to these.

We can try to reduce the risk somewhat by buying at ‘expat’ supermarkets like Carrefour and City Shop, but in this country, you cannot be too careful. I am sure I’m being slowly poisoned from the junk I buy on the street almost everyday. But I can live with it.