Street meat
The lengths some people will go to just to make a name for themselves.
A Chinese reporter is in big trouble after faking a news story about food from street vendors. He allegedly had some friends soak cardboard in pork fat and claimed he caught vendors stuffing their buns with the papery filler.
The story came out in the wake of several tainted food scandals out of China involving pet foods, toothpaste and dyed egg yolks. The reporter says he was assigned to find problems in the Beijing “street meat” industry and after two weeks he had come up empty. He claims he was under increasing pressure from his editor to find a story so he made one up. It aired on Beijing’s Life Channel and then again on China Central Television. On YouTube, it was viewed thousands of times.
Word of the bun-stuffing story spread quickly in the internet and sparked health authorities to launch an investigation. They found no cardboard stuffing and determined that it would be impossible for customers not to notice they were biting into so much paper, even if it was soaked with a porky substance.
Beijing TV apologized to viewers and the reporter is now in police hands. It’s not clear what will happen to him.
Here in this city, the health department has decided that street vendors can continue to sell only hot dogs and sausages until next spring. That’s when they hope to have everything worked out with regard to sanitary concerns and cart owners will be able to offer items including pizzas, smoothies and corn on the cob. But no pork-soaked cardboard.
July 20th, 2007 at 10:12 am
It’s interesting to note that Chinese authorities are getting sick and tired of all the bad press they are getting for their exports and food safety, so they are now hitting back at imports to China. This past week the Chinese sent chicken packed in the U.S.A. (Tyson ), back because of salmonella… Any ways more fibre can’t hurt?