SQ3.0dotJP
07-05-2007, 02:46 PM
i don't think this is WTLW, but yet more WTF from china
http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/waiwai/archive/news/2004/11/20041117p2g00m0dm999000c.html
Chinese soy sauce from human hair leaves fatal aftertaste in Japan
Chinese soy sauce made from human hair is cancer causing and restaurants throughout Japan could be using it, screams Asahi Geino (11/25).
From January to September last year, 653 tons of soy sauce was imported from China.
"Chinese restaurants make up the bulk of places in Japan that use Chinese soy sauce," an insider in the traditional Asian condiment industry tells Asahi Geino. "Chinese soy sauce goes better with Chinese food than the Japanese-made product does."
Fears about Chinese soy sauce were sparked by a report on Chinese TV that noted local makers were using human hair to create their condiments. Japanese soy sauce makers used to use human hair, too.
"During the Pacific War (World War II), food shortages meant that the soy beans used to make sauce instead became a foodstuff and hair was gathered from barbers and used to make ersatz soy sauce," Satoshi Noguchi, the boss of Noguchi Rihatsu barbershop in Kashiwa, Chiba Prefecture, tells Asahi Geino.
Human hair makes an alternative to soybeans because it contains the amino acids that give the sauce its flavor. Some say Chinese soy sauce makers who use hair as an ingredient are posing a cancer risk because of the powerful chemicals they use to extract the amino acids from human hair.
Chinese soy sauce manufacturers say they want to continue making human hair sauce because it's much cheaper than using soybeans. But outrage caused the Chinese government to ban the process, although many unscrupulous soy makers continue prowling barbershops for their economic alternative.
"It's not the hair that causes cancer," the soy sauce business insider says, adding that it's possibly caused by MCP, a fluid in the body associated with the breakdown of proteins and increasingly accused of having a potential link to the disease.
China is clearly treating human hair sauce as a problem. Japan bans the use of soy sauce made from anything other than organic proteins, so the animal proteins in human hair sauce are naturally banned.
That's not to say some of the controversial sauce hasn't already been imported.
"We confirm ingredients and production methods at 31 inspection points at sea or airports throughout the country and have not had a single report of that nature since the start of this year," a spokesman for the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare says. "Perhaps this product was never imported."
Yet, most food inspections at customs are little more than a cursory glance at documents, keeping alive the possibility that some of the human hair sauce may have slipped through.
"It's just not realistic to examine all the soy sauce imported from China," a ministry spokesman tells Asahi Geino. "There's no way we could even possibly do it."
and i will retire my "new thread" button for the day
http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/waiwai/archive/news/2004/11/20041117p2g00m0dm999000c.html
Chinese soy sauce from human hair leaves fatal aftertaste in Japan
Chinese soy sauce made from human hair is cancer causing and restaurants throughout Japan could be using it, screams Asahi Geino (11/25).
From January to September last year, 653 tons of soy sauce was imported from China.
"Chinese restaurants make up the bulk of places in Japan that use Chinese soy sauce," an insider in the traditional Asian condiment industry tells Asahi Geino. "Chinese soy sauce goes better with Chinese food than the Japanese-made product does."
Fears about Chinese soy sauce were sparked by a report on Chinese TV that noted local makers were using human hair to create their condiments. Japanese soy sauce makers used to use human hair, too.
"During the Pacific War (World War II), food shortages meant that the soy beans used to make sauce instead became a foodstuff and hair was gathered from barbers and used to make ersatz soy sauce," Satoshi Noguchi, the boss of Noguchi Rihatsu barbershop in Kashiwa, Chiba Prefecture, tells Asahi Geino.
Human hair makes an alternative to soybeans because it contains the amino acids that give the sauce its flavor. Some say Chinese soy sauce makers who use hair as an ingredient are posing a cancer risk because of the powerful chemicals they use to extract the amino acids from human hair.
Chinese soy sauce manufacturers say they want to continue making human hair sauce because it's much cheaper than using soybeans. But outrage caused the Chinese government to ban the process, although many unscrupulous soy makers continue prowling barbershops for their economic alternative.
"It's not the hair that causes cancer," the soy sauce business insider says, adding that it's possibly caused by MCP, a fluid in the body associated with the breakdown of proteins and increasingly accused of having a potential link to the disease.
China is clearly treating human hair sauce as a problem. Japan bans the use of soy sauce made from anything other than organic proteins, so the animal proteins in human hair sauce are naturally banned.
That's not to say some of the controversial sauce hasn't already been imported.
"We confirm ingredients and production methods at 31 inspection points at sea or airports throughout the country and have not had a single report of that nature since the start of this year," a spokesman for the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare says. "Perhaps this product was never imported."
Yet, most food inspections at customs are little more than a cursory glance at documents, keeping alive the possibility that some of the human hair sauce may have slipped through.
"It's just not realistic to examine all the soy sauce imported from China," a ministry spokesman tells Asahi Geino. "There's no way we could even possibly do it."
and i will retire my "new thread" button for the day