Experimental, battery-powered chopsticks may soon alert Chinese diners to the terrible truth of what lurks on their plates — adulerated eggs, fake mutton and other repulsive additives presented by unscrupulous restaurateurs.
The early version of the chopsticks, however, is designed to test only for “gutter oil”; cooking fat illegally reclaimed from dustbins and drains.
Despite public revulsion, the practice is widespread, and at night the streets of Beijing, Shanghai and other cities are plied by ramshackle carts taking pots of reclaimed oil to rebottling centres.
Campaigns have attempted to crack down on the trade, but it has been difficult to establish the true history of the oil in which your Chongqing chilli chicken or Sichuan hotpot is steeped.
The chopsticks could change all that. Prodded gently into food, tiny sensors measure the acidity, temperature and saltiness of the oil. If it has been reclaimed, a red light gleams; if not, a blue light gives the go-ahead.
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The chopsticks, which have yet to have a commercial price set on them, were unveiled in Beijing yesterday by the internet firm Baidu, whose social media sites register public uproar at China’s successive food scandals.
Baidu intends to expand the sensory capacity on the chopsticks to test for other dishonest practices. Fox meat sold as mutton, for example, or deliberate contamination, such as leather protein being introduced to milk, will, it hopes, eventually be outed by the device.The government has repeatedly pledged to impose tougher food regulations, but corner-cutting remains widespread.
Last month hamburgers were temporarily removed from McDonald’s and other restaurants when horrifying lapses were uncovered at the American chain’s main meat supplier.