© unknownPork that glows blue because of the presence of bacteria was purchased in a Shanghai market in April.
Almost all of the attention we've paid to food safety in recent weeks has been fixed on the
deadly E. coli outbreak in Germany. And justifiably so. But if you happen to have taken a peek at China in the last few months you would have seen an eye-popping string of food safety oddities culminating in the state-sponsored suppression of journalists.
As I mentioned in
my column today there was the famous village wedding at which
more than half of the 500 guests were hospitalized after eating pork contaminated with Clenbuterol, a drug that accelerates fat burning and muscle growth. (It makes pigs grow faster and leaner, and when consumed in excess by humans can cause nausea, convulsions, dizziness, vomiting and heart palpitations.) Clenbuterol was banned from pig feed in the 1990s, but is still used under the name "lean pork powder."
The sickening of nearly 300 people from ingesting pig steroids is probably the least bizarre of China's recent food safety "blunders." There are the
watermelons that began exploding in Eastern China, due to (according to China Central Television) overuse of a chemical that makes them grow faster; the
raw pork that glows blue because of phosphorescent bacteria; and the discovery that one in ten meals is cooked using
oil dredged from the sewers (collected under the cover of darkness from drains behind restaurants, filtered, and resold).
Comment: For more information on the health benefits of salt, see these Sott links:
Why Salt Doesn't Deserve its Bad Rap
High salt consumption not dangerous, new European study finds, but U.S. experts disagree
Why Himalayan Pink Crystal Salt is So Much Better for your Health than Processed Table Salt