Report: Cardboard main ingredient in steamed buns sold as
Beijing street food BEIJING (AP) - Chopped cardboard, softened in
an industrial chemical and made tasty with pork flavoring, is a
main ingredient in batches of steamed buns sold in a Beijing
neighborhood, state television said.
The report, aired late Wednesday on China Central Television,
highlights the country's perennial problems with food safety
despite continuing government efforts to improve the
situation.
Countless small, often illegally run operations exist across China
and make money cutting corners by using inexpensive ingredients or
unsavory substitutes. They are almost impossible to regulate.
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.
The hidden camera follows the man, whose face is not shown, into a
ramshackle building where steamers are filled with the fluffy white
buns, traditionally stuffed with minced pork.
The surroundings are filthy, with water puddles and piles of old
furniture and cardboard on the ground.
"What's in the recipe?'' the reporter asks. "Six to four,'' the man
says.
"You mean 60 percent cardboard? What is the other 40 percent?''
asks the reporter. "Fatty meat,'' the man replies.
The bun maker and his assistants then give a demonstration on how
the product is made. Squares 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.''
The police eventually show up and shut down the operation.
Just received this in my company's email. 
