Beijing baozi
CBS News has video of the shop in Beijing that was caught using chemical soaked paper as a filler in steamed snacks. The story originally aired on Chinese TV the same week that the government announced athletes could be assured of safe food during the Olympics.
China Central Television’s undercover investigation report features the shirtless, shorts-clad maker of the buns — called baozi — talking about how the product was sold in a neighborhood in Beijing’s sprawling Chaoyang district.
In the video, which you can see at China Busts Cardboard Bun Shop, an unidentified man is caught on hidden video showing how the buns are made.
Sphere: Related ContentSquares 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-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.”
July 14th, 2007 at 3:03 pm
Ask anyone in China, and they’ll tell you that Beijing is the culture city. Kind of makes you wonder what delicacies they eat in other, less-cultured parts of the country. Peace.
July 20th, 2007 at 12:27 pm
[...] news media is reporting that the food scare involving baozi was a story fabricated by a freelance reporter. The Associated Press writes: A freelance reporter [...]
July 22nd, 2007 at 9:42 pm
[...] have passed, enough time for public opinion to simmer down, but people are still talking about the cardboard buns story. More and more people are coming out expressing the opinion that the original story was in fact [...]