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Poppy seasoning scandals expose malpractice
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A string of restaurants discovered using poppy capsules for seasoning have exposed a shocking practice in China’s food industry.
On Wednesday, authorities busted a noodle restaurant for adding the potentially-addictive poppy capsule into mutton noodles in Yulin City, northwest China’s Shaanxi Province, according to the local Huashang Newspaper.
The latest case comes just one week after 35 restaurants and snack bars nationwide were investigated for adding poppy capsules or other illegal ingredients to food. Two of the bars investigated reportedly belonged to Zhouheiya, one of the country’s most popular duck-neck snack brands, though Zhouheiya clarified that the two bars were copycats.
The poppy capsule, dried pericarp from the ripe fruit of an opium poppy plant, contains more than 20 types of alkaloids, including those found in morphine and cocaine. With pain-easing and cough-relieving effects, it is used in the medical industry in China.
According to the Guangzhou Daily, most of the restaurants found using poppy serve heavily-flavored Chinese food like hotpot, grilled fish and fried chicken. The recent cases have stirred concern amongst internet users, with a story eliciting more than 9,800 comments on web portal 163.com by 8 am Friday.
“Do they have any conscience at all?” wrote one user.
“At least it’s not gutter oil,” mocked another, referring to the illegal practice of recycling cooking oil by collecting it from the drains and gutters surrounding restaurants and refining it to sell.
It has been an “open secret” in the Chinese food industry that poppy-derived powder is used as a “secret ingredient” at some small restaurants in dishes or hotpots to improve the taste and lure customers to come back for more.
China bans the use of the poppy capsules in food because long-term consumption of poppy capsules can lead to addiction.
Transporting, buying, selling, storing, or using even small amounts of poppy can lead to detention for up to 15 days, and a fine of up to 3,000 yuan (US$456). Still, the practice persists and is often done by small restaurants and snack bars in the country.
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