China seizes 30,000 tons of chicken feet tainted by hydrogen peroxide

[webfact]

China seizes 30,000 tons of chicken feet tainted by hydrogen peroxide
By Wilfred Chan, CNN

Hong Kong (CNN) -- In the latest stomach-churning food scandal to hit China, authorities have seized over 30,000 tons of chicken feet contaminated with hydrogen peroxide, according to state media.

Thirty eight people have been arrested on charges of producing the tainted items, while 11 suspects remain at large.

Images on Chinese news websites show large troughs filled with chicken feet soaking in what authorities say is hydrogen peroxide, a colorless chemical compound used for sterilization and bleaching.

The chemical, which causes vomiting and other stomach problems if consumed, may have been used to give the chicken feet a whiter, cleaner appearance.

A report by official news agency Xinhua said the tainted items were first discovered in Yongjia County in Zhejiang, eastern China.

Full story: http://edition.cnn.com/2014/08/26/world/asia/china-chicken-feet-scandal/index.html


-- CNN 2014-08-26

[Scott]

Where I work, they have chicken's feet on the menu about once a week.

I just can't eat them. It will take more than a little bleach to make them palatable for me.

[bkkjames]

Be amazed at how much food here comes from there...

[retell]

Nope not much chance i'll ever eat that , several kind of bugs , snakes , pigbrain (zult) no problem

[webfact]

[Star Dust]

Actually I hate chickens as a whole if they are not , steamed, fried, boiled, BBK'ed...etc. CHICKENFEET??? NEVER. EVER.

[slipperylobster]

What is it that people like so much about the feet? It is what chickens use for scratching up worms and vermin. However repulsive, I used to find it funny to see signs in english (Philippines) advertising chicken asses in the mall food courts.

Must be something to it.

[Gsxrnz]

How many chicken feet does it take to get 30,000 tonnes worth? Surely that's a misprint.

If one foot weighed say 50 grams , that would be 600 million legs representing 300 million chickens (assuming no one-legged chickens).

[Gsxrnz]

What is it that people like so much about the feet? It is what chickens use for scratching up worms and vermin. However repulsive, I used to find it funny to see signs in english (Philippines) advertising chicken asses in the mall food courts.

Must be something to it.

I wouldn't eat a chickens arse, but quite partial to a Parson's Nose.

[laurentbkk]

Bon appétit

[iReason]

Given the fact of what chickens and pigs stand around in until the end of their days, why would anyone consider eating their feet?

[Shot]

Fried chicken feet are pretty good, once you get past the fact you're eating chicken feet.

[kurnell]

How is rice and wheat bleached?

[chaiyapoon]

Tried them once and to many boney bits so can't be bothered with them. There are so many better things to eat.

[jamhar]

I'll never complain about a Big Mac Again!

[wileycoyote]

Bad news for KFC

[shirtless]

China seems to be a hub of bad food processing practices.The real problem is they just dont care as long as it sells.

[Chicken George]

Bottled Blondes in the chicken world too!

Now maybe the wife will stop buying the feet! I have told her many times we can afford the meat!

I doubt it though. They love the grop grop! Crunchy bits...

[utkb]

My wife was so happy when she found chicken feet at the grocery here in Abu Dhabi. She makes Tom yum with it for herself and our daughter.

[Estrada]

It got somewhat lost in translation. It is not the Hydrogen Peroxide that was in danger of being ingested as it breaks down very quickly into oxygen and water.. What the story was about was that they were cleaning heavily contaminated chicken feet which were up to 46 years old! H2O2 is good for sterilising and there would be no Hydrogen Peroxide left on the chicken after washing. The problem is that there are more than likely toxins left on the chicken bearing in mind the heavily contiminated feet were up to 46 years old!

I ran a milk packing factory for 2 year. In the packing of UHT milk Hydrogen peroxide is used to sterilise the internal packaging on a continuous basis and no one has, or will ever, get ill due to the use of hydrogen peroxide.

[Strangebrew]

Brits eat spotted dick, Filipino's eat chicken butt and head, Vietnese eat anything the crawls walks or bark's Thai's eat bugs Give me a good ole steak any time.

[GuyL]

I guess that's why I have a strong dislike of fake blonde chicks!

[daoyai]

Chicken feet seems to be "lady food" the women seem to love them, never seen dudes go crazy for them but if she says lets go get some late at night you better go if you know whats good for you..... the hydrogen peroxide aspect is a mystery..... 46yo chicken feet, gotta taste better than 1000 year old eggs.

[canuckistaner]

46 year old chicken feet? Another lost in translation....do chickens live 46 years...I don't think so!

[jackh]

46 year old feet sounds like a bit of a stretch. They are consumed too quickly in vast amounts in China to have stock 46 years old. Makes no sense.

I met a man ( now a millionaire ) who exported chicken feet from the US to China, virtually getting them for the price of hauling them away from processors in the US. Smart lad.

[Publicus]

Tried them once and to many boney bits so can't be bothered with them. There are so many better things to eat.

The PRChinese are learning as their purchasing power increases that there are better things they can afford than the chicken feet that so delighted past generations.

Historically chicken feet is the only "meat" many Chinese were able to buy or raise, and only occasionally, so it was a sometimes big treat. Historically it's chicken and pork in China which is a major reason CP Group does such a bristling business at its Lotus supermarkets in the big cities of the PRC.

Chicken feet are skin and bones no matter how much they are flavored up. Almost all meats in the PRChina are chopped up into bits of bone with some meat, something familiar to anyone who's been around Thailand for some time.

The PRChinese Western food luxurious restaurants have learned not to chop up the steaks but still have to catch on that the ice cream dessert comes at the end of the meal rather than as the first item.

Many Westerns in the PRC get laid low by colic a couple of times a year. Some PRChinese call it Mao's revenge.

[boomerangutang]

Quite a feat to get 30k tons of feet. Reminds me of when I read in a major Thai paper of barge-fulls of MSG coming down the Mekong - to be ingested by Thais and the people they cook for (us).

Hydrogen Peroxide, full strength is what some submarines use for propelling torpedoes. It's very volatile. It's what is thought to have doomed the Soviet sub: Kursk, when some water mixed with H3O and caused an explosion and fire.

[rlopes]

The Chinese won't mind as long as it's white...

[Geordie59]

That would be a hell of a lot of chickens!

Surely there is a zero or two added on or the units are wrong.

[Publicus]

That would be a hell of a lot of chickens!

Surely there is a zero or two added on or the units are wrong.

I'd almost bet it's more like 300 tons or possibly 3000 tons, not 30,000 tons of chicken feet.

30,000 tons of chicken feet would connect from here to the moon...or so it could seem. It might mean more chickens in China than Chinese people in China....a greater fleet of cargo ships than naval ships and craft at the Normandy D-Day (5500).

Other posters have done some basic arithmetic that to me would indicate the tons total either 300 or 3000.

The translation, yes.

The Chinese have a radically different system of numbers from either the Western one or the Thai one (or vice-versa).

I say for example 1 trillion but the Chinese say one billion thousands or one thousand billions. And that's a round number - it's not 1,486,291,579 which becomes impossible to translate to or from Chinese without assistance from NASA..

A botched translation could happen anywhere along the process of interpreting the numerical weight value of the chicken feet given the systems of counting sums and the like are radically different.