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Get ready for artificial eggs made in China
By Morten Zahle
3 Oct 2007 08:21
In China, swindlers are making artificial eggs, containing things like tapestry paste - and they're such good imitations that consumers can't tell the difference from just handling or looking at them. The European Union and Danish Tax & Customs Authorities' Task Force on Trademark Falsification have issued a warning.
"The trend is, we're seeing more fakes of everyday commodites. The fact that the Chinese have started faking eggs is confirmation that the fakes are spreading into all sorts of products," said Lars Kryger Nielsen, an official with the Danish tax & customs authority.
The central tax & customs authority was alerted to the faked eggs by an EU expert specializing in the growing export from China of faked goods, and the taxmen got a hold of the recipe for the artificial eggs.
The list of ingredients for making egg white includes a series of chemicals: Sodium alginate (thickening agent), potassium aluminium sulphate, sodium benzoate, gelatine, lactone, carboxymethylene cellulose (the main ingredient in tapestry paste), lysin and calcium chloride.
An identical mixture, with yellow colouring added, produces the egg yolk. The yolk and white are covered by a thin membrane and placed in a mould or tin to be encased in a shell made of wax and plaster, and the end product is a flawless, fake, egg.
Do-it-yourself courses
"This thing is so well organized that you can take a three day course for $150 and learn how to make a fake egg," says Lars Kryger Nielsen.
Peter Hald, cand. scient. with the University of Aarhus, went over the egg recipe.
"I'd prefer sticking with the old-fashioned egg, cholesterol and all. Eggs are among the better foodstuffs and they have a high protein content. The fake ones are made with a series of harmless chemicals, but their nutritional value is non-existent, and I'd be a little worried as to what is in that yellow colouring for the yolk," he said.
The artificial eggs have yet to reach Europe - so it is believed - but in China they're commonly sold at markets and mixed into containers along with ordinary chicken eggs.
By Morten Zahle
3 Oct 2007 08:21
In China, swindlers are making artificial eggs, containing things like tapestry paste - and they're such good imitations that consumers can't tell the difference from just handling or looking at them. The European Union and Danish Tax & Customs Authorities' Task Force on Trademark Falsification have issued a warning.
"The trend is, we're seeing more fakes of everyday commodites. The fact that the Chinese have started faking eggs is confirmation that the fakes are spreading into all sorts of products," said Lars Kryger Nielsen, an official with the Danish tax & customs authority.
The central tax & customs authority was alerted to the faked eggs by an EU expert specializing in the growing export from China of faked goods, and the taxmen got a hold of the recipe for the artificial eggs.
The list of ingredients for making egg white includes a series of chemicals: Sodium alginate (thickening agent), potassium aluminium sulphate, sodium benzoate, gelatine, lactone, carboxymethylene cellulose (the main ingredient in tapestry paste), lysin and calcium chloride.
An identical mixture, with yellow colouring added, produces the egg yolk. The yolk and white are covered by a thin membrane and placed in a mould or tin to be encased in a shell made of wax and plaster, and the end product is a flawless, fake, egg.
Do-it-yourself courses
"This thing is so well organized that you can take a three day course for $150 and learn how to make a fake egg," says Lars Kryger Nielsen.
Peter Hald, cand. scient. with the University of Aarhus, went over the egg recipe.
"I'd prefer sticking with the old-fashioned egg, cholesterol and all. Eggs are among the better foodstuffs and they have a high protein content. The fake ones are made with a series of harmless chemicals, but their nutritional value is non-existent, and I'd be a little worried as to what is in that yellow colouring for the yolk," he said.
The artificial eggs have yet to reach Europe - so it is believed - but in China they're commonly sold at markets and mixed into containers along with ordinary chicken eggs.
Link to the story (in Danish).
What will they think of next? Oh wait, they've already thought of it!
Bastards.
I think maybe the time has come to just start avoiding Chinese goods altogether. It should be intriguing to see how they'll manage to fake the Olympics next year.
|"This is all about peace; and in the quest for peace you have none." -my son wise beyond his years
(but only if they can make ones that hatch... that would be awesome.)
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