Fake eggs from China: how they do it and how to recognize a fake. I'm freaking out!!! Artificial eggs from chemicals

The fact that, lately, in our grocery stores, instead of products, it is not clear what is being sold, it is well known. Residents of cities today have practically lost the habit of normal food. Therefore, it is not surprising that bad luck to come across fake eggs is quite possible today.

The Chinese have learned to fake a product that, it would seem, is impossible to fake - chicken eggs. The technology of this scam is as follows (translated from Chinese, including terms, so some inaccuracies are possible).

Ingredients: calcium and potassium carbonates¸ benzoic acid, potassium alginate, paraffin, gypsum powder, citric acid, potassium alum, calcium chloride, gelatin, food coloring.

1. Potassium carbonate is dissolved in warm water.

2. With constant stirring, gelatin, benzoic acid, and then alum are added to the potassium salt. This is protein.

3. To create a yolk, yellow dye and citric acid are also added to the above components.

4. The "yolk" is poured into the mold.

5. The mold is lowered into the potassium carbonate solution. In this case, the form is slightly shaken. This allows the "yolk" to become spherical.

6. The "yolk" is kept in potassium carbonate for about an hour. Next, the form with the “yolk” is taken out, rinsed with water and allowed to dry.

7. Then the dried yolk is placed in a protein mold and the whole procedure is repeated with a solution of potassium carbonate.

8. Then, on the thread, the “egg” is dipped into a mixture of paraffin, gypsum powder and calcium carbonate. It turns out the shell.

So how are Chinese eggs made? Video

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Is it possible to distinguish a fake Chinese egg from a real one?

It is believed that there is practically none, except that the shell of the fake is a little more shiny, and after breaking the egg, the yolk and protein form a homogeneous mixture after a while.

However, over time, the technology for the production of fake eggs is becoming more and more perfect. In boiled and fried form, it is simply impossible to distinguish a fake.

The ability to produce fakes that are very similar to the original, the Chinese are known throughout the world. They copy not only clothes, shoes, paintings, but also, more recently, eggs.

A unique food fake is so similar to the original source that it is not so easy to recognize the fraud. Let's figure out how not to fall for the bait of scammers.

Distribution and sale of artificial eggs

For many years, China has regularly mined artificial plastic rice. Sometimes rice is also made from potatoes to mimic rice. These fake rice grains look exactly like rice but remain firm when cooked. They've been trying to sneak into their fake rice to cut costs for years, and most American consumers aren't wiser.

In each bag, a small amount of real rice is mixed with fake rice, sprayed with fragrance to mimic the smell of rice, then packaged and shipped throughout China. Even more disgusting, eating three cups of this rice has been found to consume an entire plastic bag, which is dangerous to your health and terrible for your digestive system.

Artificial eggs on the left, natural eggs on the right

How to distinguish an artificial egg from a real one

Artificial chicken eggs are a dummy, which not only will not bring benefits, but can cause irreparable harm to health.

In order to save money, for the manufacture of such pacifiers, the Chinese use cheap ingredients - potassium carbonate, gelatin, potassium alginate and food grade calcium chloride. According to the composition, it is clear that the body does not need such ingredients at all and, moreover, is dangerous.

"Rice" is made by mixing potatoes, sweet potatoes and plastic. Potatoes are first formed into the shape of rice grains. In the same year, melamine was also found in Chinese eggs. The obvious motivation for this scheme would be money, since synthetic "rice" is cheaper to produce. This is another, albeit somewhat more troubling, in a long line of spoiled or defective products apparently coming out of China. These include poisonous drywall and dirty milk.

Studies have shown that some rice mills in China are producing "fake rice substitute" instead of the popular and more expensive "Wuchang" rice for more profit. These ingredients are mixed together and turned into "grains" that closely resemble the appearance of real rice grains.

A profitable illegal business daily brings profit to Chinese entrepreneurs, which is not surprising - the cost of producing artificial food is minimal.

In China, you can find artificial products in the markets and shops of many large cities, but not so long ago, counterfeit products also entered Russia. And this means that you should be vigilant and carefully examine the packaging and the eggs themselves before buying.

The rice substitute is then sprayed with fragrance to mimic the smell of Wuchang rice, making it difficult to decipher between the two versions. As you might expect, eating this "plastic rice" is extremely unhealthy and toxic, and makes quite a lot of noise. One Chinese official warned that eating three bowls of this artificial rice would be the equivalent of swallowing one plastic bag.

The decades-old plastic rice rumors bear all the hallmarks of the standard "food from China" panic, including identical claims that are repeated a year ago and without substantiation. The "Chinese Restaurant Official" always warns that eating the alleged product is akin to eating a plastic bag and claiming that the motive behind eating is cynically financial. Another sign of the panic over manufactured food from China is the presence of several videos allegedly depicting the shady production of fake rice in factories.

The following signs will help you recognize a fake:

Shell smoothness. Fake eggs usually do not have roughness, however, this point cannot always help, since the differences from the real shell can be very slight.
Uniformity of yolk and protein. You can see this only after you break the egg. Both the yolk and protein are made from the same material, so they are a single whole.
A hard-boiled egg will not have a blue tint to the yolk, as it does with a natural one. Also, it will not crumble, but on the contrary, it will become jelly-like. The protein will take on a yellowish tint.
The protein is heterogeneous, can fall apart.
An undercooked egg has a clear gelatinous texture.

Language barriers are often effective in promoting such rumors because unrelated videos can easily be flagged as "evidence" of bad practices where most viewers cannot understand the clips' audio content. The revised angle of the video was at the forefront of another Chinese export panic involving labor-intensive jobs offered with a video clip cut from an Asian TV show about making "products for display" that is not intended for consumption. And like the plastic rice rumors, the hemp wax appeal spread with the implausible suggestion that people wouldn't know the salad they were eating tasted like a candle or their rice had styrofoam.

Unfortunately, when frying, you will not notice any strange taste or other noticeable differences, as the Chinese add seasonings and enhance the taste with monosodium glutamate.

How the Chinese make artificial eggs

The general scheme for manufacturing such a product is quite simple.

What is it for?

The earliest and primary versions of plastic claims depended on "reports", supposed investigations, information that was scary "if true", rice making that "it was believed" and the kind of content that was generally safer than sorry. impress readers without needing any strict follow-up. Naturally, plastic rice is a contender, constantly playing on food sanctuary social media pages with or without justification.

One English-language source reported initial panic - and this testing showed that the claim was false. The report urged Indonesians to be vigilant, though he acknowledged that there was no certainty that plastic rice was common in Indonesia. She claimed that the rice did not turn into proper porridge, but instead became congealed, causing her, her younger sister, and nephew to get sick after they ate it.

First, potassium carbonate is immersed in water and dissolved. It turns out a mass similar to protein. Gelatin, alum and benzoic acid are added to it.
To get a mass similar to the yolk, citric acid and a little pigment are added to the same composition to give it a yellow color.
The yolk mass is placed in a mold and in a solution with potassium carbonate to form a film on the surface. The mold is slightly shaken to make the yolk round. After an hour, the mass will harden. It remains to take it out, rinse with water and dry.
The yolk is immersed in a protein mixture and again removed in a solution with potassium. The finished egg is covered with a shell, dipping it in a solution of gypsum powder, paraffin and potassium carbonate. After drying, a coating is formed on the egg that imitates the shell.

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The police interrogated the seller and one of their suppliers and closed their shop. Devi's cashmere store was also closed pending investigations. It does not list the percentage of synthetic materials he found. Oh dear. Badrodin said that Sukofindo may have used different methods of analysis or contaminated equipment. Commerce Minister Rahmat Gobel said his counterparts in China and Malaysia assured him that there was no counterfeit rice in their countries.

The same alleged incident with the same porridge vendor was found to increase the fear of plastic rice, leading to an ingrained belief that the staple made Indonesians sick. The Jakarta police said they had stopped investigating the rice, which was said to contain hazardous plastics, because lab results showed that the rice samples did not contain such materials.

Can they be eaten

Eating this "product" is highly discouraged, since its nutritional value is zero. It does not contain any useful substances and, moreover, if eaten regularly, it can cause serious damage to health.

Doctors warn that the ingredients in artificial eggs can:

Jakarta Police Special Director for Crime Control. He announced that the substances could cause kidney, liver, lung problems and cancer if consumed. They did not find any plastic substances in the samples. As we all know, many people get sick every day.

If not for social media, the "Chinese egg" would not have reached its current glory. There have been similar cases where fumes from fish or plastic rice were brought to the market, or dye was injected into watermelons. Unfortunately, all such reports made their way into the electronic media and some sections of the print media, which almost confirmed people's fears about the cases they first saw on social networks.

cause memory loss, blindness,
slow down the mental and physical development of children,
excite the nervous system
lead to allergic reactions.

If you saw eggs at a suspiciously low price in the store, do not save on your health - perhaps this is the very dangerous fake from the Middle Kingdom.

How to distinguish a fake from a real egg?

However, why the same social media or mainstream media did not pay much attention to reports exposing the hoax remains unclear. The same media that used to spread the hoax should take the responsibility of purifying the air, trust people with scientific power and temperament.

Ordinary people are wrong about such videos and news, says Thomas Biju Mathew, professor and head of the pesticide laboratory at Kerala Agricultural University. He participated in a series of tests regarding "Chinese eggs" and other issues. “Social media, rather than an addition to our lives, is now almost getting sick,” he adds.

The Chinese are great masters of imitation. They learned how to perfectly copy clothes and accessories, gadgets and paintings, architectural structures and entire cities. But if, thanks to the craving for fakes, artificial eggs appear on the market, you should think about your own safety.

The talent of the inhabitants of the Middle Kingdom in the field of counterfeit food is not at all new. You may have already read about unique food fakes, including glowing pork and cardboard buns. It would seem that making an egg is much more difficult. But no! Artificial you can hardly distinguish from chicken.

Matthew takes the fake news that is being spread through the media seriously and says that the government should come up with some kind of cyber law to solve the problem because crime creates fear and confusion. There are methods to zero against persons spreading unverified news about prominent personalities. Techniques must be used to find the source of fake news, he adds.

The government has the capacity to check any aspect of food adulteration and contamination, and food safety offices and inspectors are available in all areas. Shibu, Assistant Commissioner for Food Safety Ernakulam. Like soy sauce, supposedly made from human hair, or the aforementioned wax salad or warning about it, and exported from China, the plastic rice rumor served as a socially acceptable way for people to make reservations about exotic or culturally unappealing ingredients in Chinese exports.

In real eggs, there is a whole storehouse of nutrients: fats, proteins, glucose, carbohydrates, minerals, many enzymes, as well as a set of vitamins (A, E, D, group B). There is also cholesterol, which does not harm human health. That is why experts advise eating one egg a day, and in the children's menu this product is considered indispensable.

The calls were published by both the local paper and the health council about whispers that these closures were the result of finding dead cats in every laundry locker. Ignore the fact that the local newspaper had a story the day before about the closure of all 51 restaurants in this particular chain - the cat ball rumors were not dismissed.

Asian culture is markedly different from Western culture, with language being the first hurdle to overcome. Customs, religious practices, traditions - they are all very different from their North American counterparts. As with all xenophobic reactions, what is not the same is vilified. The Asian culinary practice of creating a tiny piece of meat to feed a family by cutting it up nicely and turning it into a larger dish of vegetables or noodles turns fear into a car for "them" to let something unacceptable into our involuntary stomachs.

A fake egg is an absolute “dummy”, there is nothing useful in it. The shell is made from gypsum, calcium and paraffin. Protein and yolk are formed from a mixture of gelatin and calcium alginate, with the addition of pigments.

Enjoy such a work of art several times and the consequences can be unpredictable.

Prolonged use adversely affects the nervous system. Children may experience excessive mobility, while mental development is inhibited.

Similarly, that the Chinese generally do not keep cats and dogs as pets, which are taken as a willingness to slap someone else's companion animal into the stew. Anything for the dollar, says the legend, and if you bet on white devils in the process, so much the better. As the Indonesian example detailed, the rumor was self-affirming: One woman exposed to plastic rice fell ill and assumed that the accused false food she had heard about was to blame.

Poor initial testing bolstered the faith, and soon many people attributed all diseases to the specter of plastic rice. Whoever made this fake rice was doing an exceptionally good job - at first impression I would have been fooled. They sent a sample to the lab to determine exactly what the "rice" was made of.

How do they do it

They make fake eggs so skillfully that they even recreate the air membrane at the bottom of the shell. Don't hold back!

Start with yolk. The chemical mixture is dyed yellow with pigments and dipped into a mold to become spherical.

All this chemical mess is immersed in potassium carbonate, so a protective film is formed and in the future the artificial yolk will not spread. In another form, the yolk is wrapped in protein.

They also warn the public not to consume secret foods as it can be dangerous. Fake food scandals are thankfully rare in Nigeria when you compare them to countries like China. It was possible that a batch of rice tainted with chemicals or otherwise unfit for consumption was considered legendary plastic rice by people subjected to years of rumor, or that the rice was somehow counterfeit. However, the nature of the grains remained in question, and the scenario was likely an example.

They cover the workpiece with an artificial shell, dipping it several times in a solution of paraffin, potassium carbonate and gypsum powder.

Dried up and done! Outwardly, an egg made by a craftsman is no different from that produced by a chicken.

The meaning of fake

If someone is willing to spend time painstakingly manipulating chemicals, look for a benefit. The counterfeiting of chicken eggs in the Celestial Empire has long outgrown amateur experiments and turned into a very profitable business.

It turns out that the cost of making a fake does not exceed 25% of the price of a real egg. You can put them up for sale a little cheaper than the market value and make great money!

So, of course, they do. Visitors to markets in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and other major Chinese cities in any case risk buying a dozen or two "chemical" eggs.
Do you think it's not worth worrying, let the Chinese worry? In vain. Fake eggs have long been sold around the world.

How to recognize

A tired buyer after a hard day's work will definitely not notice anything suspicious. Unless the price can pleasantly surprise, but this is not a reason to accuse someone of falsification. However, if you carefully compare two eggs, fake and natural, you can still find some differences.

The artificial shell glistens more, but this is a moot point. Break such an egg and leave it in a container for a while, gradually the yolk and protein will mix into one mass, because they are made of similar materials.

Have you noticed that a hard-boiled egg that has lain in the refrigerator for about 6 hours has a slightly blue yolk? So with the "chemical" this will not happen. The yolk will not crumble, but will become more jelly-like, but the protein will turn slightly yellow and may crack into pieces.

When frying, you will not see the differences and the dish will not have a strange aftertaste.

The sale of surrogate food products is prohibited, but this does not stop entrepreneurs who want to make money. There are a lot of people in the Middle Kingdom who have to save on food, so there will always be a demand for cheap eggs. It is sad that such products safely seep across the border and may end up on our table. Well, let's be careful.

At one time, I remembered the information that the Chinese began to fake chicken eggs (see, for example,). Of course, anything can be expected from the Chinese, but for eggs, this is the height of originality. And the other day I found on the Chinese Internet the story of a Chinese who worked in an office for the production of artificial eggs. He tells how they are made and how profitable it is.

According to the Chinese, the technology for the production of artificial eggs has reached such perfection that it is quite difficult to distinguish them from real ones in appearance.

The following components are used for their production. I give chemical terms translated from Chinese, so I'm not completely sure that they are correct. Calcium carbonate (碳酸钙) is used for the shell, potassium alginate (海藻酸钠), potassium alum (明矾), gelatin (明胶), food grade calcium chloride (食用氯化钙) and pigment (色素) are used for the yolk and protein.

First, we dissolve potassium carbonate in warm water, getting a protein-like mass. Then, while stirring, add gelatin, benzoic acid (苯甲酸), alum (白矾) to it. The resulting mixture will replace the protein. For the yolk, the same mixture is used, but with the addition of citric acid and yellow pigment.

The yolk mixture is poured into a special mold and placed in a solution of potassium carbonate. As a result of the reaction, a film forms on the surface of the yolk. In order for the yolk to take on a spherical appearance and be evenly processed with a solution, the form is shaken. When the surface of the yolk has sufficiently hardened, the yolk is left in the solution for an hour. Then they are taken out, washed with water and dried.

The resulting yolk is placed in a protein mold, filled with a protein mixture, and in the same way, by placing it in a solution of potassium carbonate, a ready-made egg is created, which remains to be covered with a shell.

To do this, using a special thread, the egg is dipped several times into a solution of paraffin (石蜡), gypsum powder (石膏粉) and calcium carbonate, which, after drying, forms a shell.

The main differences between an artificial egg and a natural one:
1. The shell is a little more shiny and rough. But the differences are quite insignificant, so it is not easy to determine an artificial egg by appearance.
2. The white and yolk of a broken artificial egg form a homogeneous mass after a while, as they are made of the same material.

One kilogram of natural eggs costs six and a half yuan. And the production of a kilogram of artificial ones costs 55 fen (0.55 yuan). The shop in which the Chinese worked made a thousand eggs a day, with a net income of over one hundred yuan. (100 yuan = 450 rubles).

Fake chicken eggs made in China appeared in Russian stores. Outwardly, it was almost impossible to distinguish them from the real ones.

For the manufacture of yolk and protein, the Chinese use calcium alginate, gelatin, pigments. The "cocktail" is placed in a semicircular shape, which is dipped in a solution of potassium carbonate to create a protective film that does not allow the "yolk" to spread.

At the beginning of the year, fake Chinese-made chicken eggs appeared in stores in the Perm Territory. It was almost impossible to distinguish them from the real ones.

At the end of July, the government newspaper The New Light of Myanmar officially announced to readers that most of the chicken eggs on sale were fake. Myanmar, aka Burma, recently received a preferential loan from China on the condition that Burma, aka Myanmar, spend this loan exclusively on Chinese goods. Including eggs. In Burma, there had long been rumors that chicken eggs were counterfeit in shops and markets, corn kernels were made from a mixture of flour, gelatin and cellulose, and ground pepper was mixed in equal proportions with powder from the same cellulose.

Burmese, they are also Myanmar doctors published part of their report on the examination of chicken eggs obtained from retail outlets. From the report, Burmese buyers learned that a significant proportion of these eggs were counterfeit. The Myanmar experts could not determine the composition of the fake eggs, writing something like the fact that, they say, there are unidentifiable powders and liquids, a pole, benzoic acid.

At the same time, of course, the authorities reassured the residents that, they say, they would do everything possible and impossible in order to withdraw benzoin eggs from circulation and prevent them from further hitting the shelves.

Residents, as usual, did not believe the authorities and check the eggs as anyone gets into their heads - for smell, for sound, for touch and just at random.

In some other countries, fake eggs have been written about for more than one or two years. And in June 2010, experts carefully and in detail studied their chemical composition, and some publications even showed and described the technology for making fake chicken eggs.

Taking into account the prices for chemical components, from which cunning Chinese alchemists mold cellulose "chicken eggs of the first category" and comparing them with the price of natural eggs, we get a difference of six hundred percent in favor of artificial ones. So there is an economic incentive. And if you consider that a small Chinese “egg-making workshop” produces a thousand of these crafts a day, it is clear that doing this is very profitable.

The other day I found on the Chinese Internet the story of a Chinese who worked in an office for the production of artificial eggs. He tells how they are made and how profitable it is.

According to the Chinese, the technology for the production of artificial eggs has reached such perfection that it is quite difficult to distinguish them from real ones in appearance.

The following components are used for their production. I give chemical terms translated from Chinese, so I'm not completely sure that they are correct. For the shell, calcium carbonate is used, for the yolk and protein - potassium alginate, potassium aluminum alum, gelatin, food grade calcium chloride and pigment.

First, we dissolve potassium carbonate in warm water, getting a protein-like mass. Then, stirring, add gelatin, benzoic acid, alum to it. The resulting mixture will replace the protein. For the yolk, the same mixture is used, but with the addition of citric acid and yellow pigment.

To do this, using a special thread, the egg is dipped several times into a solution of paraffin, gypsum powder and calcium carbonate, which, after drying, forms a shell.

The main differences between an artificial egg and a natural one:

1. The shell is a little more shiny and rough. But the differences are quite minor, so it is not easy to determine an artificial egg by appearance.

2. The white and yolk of a broken artificial egg form a homogeneous mass after a while, as they are made of the same material.

Another photo evidence of a Chinese eyewitness about the reality of the existence of fake chicken eggs. Their production is becoming more and more perfect both in terms of mimicry for real eggs and in terms of cost, which is 25% of the store price. Possessing no nutritional value, fake eggs pose a serious health hazard from the harmful chemicals they contain. The photographs below show that a broken fake egg is very similar to a real one, but its yolk has a stronger shell, so it can be easily held by fingers. Otherwise, there are practically no differences. If the yolk is broken, then in appearance it is indistinguishable from the real one. The shell is also very skillfully made, there is even an air membrane in its lower part. It is almost impossible to distinguish a boiled egg from a real one.

Video showing the production process of Chinese "chicken" eggs

At one time, I remember the information that the Chinese began to fake chicken eggs. Of course, anything can be expected from the Chinese, but eggs are the height of originality. And the other day I found on the Chinese Internet the story of a Chinese who worked in an office for the production of artificial eggs. He tells how they are made and how profitable it is. According to the Chinese, the technology for the production of artificial eggs has reached such perfection that it is quite difficult to distinguish them from real ones in appearance.
The following components are used for their production. I give chemical terms translated from Chinese, so I'm not completely sure that they are correct. Calcium carbonate (碳酸钙) is used for the shell, potassium alginate (海藻酸钠), potassium alum (明矾), gelatin (明胶), food grade calcium chloride (食用氯化钙) and pigment (色素) are used for the yolk and protein.
First, we dissolve potassium carbonate in warm water, getting a protein-like mass. Then, while stirring, add gelatin, benzoic acid (苯甲酸), alum (白矾) to it. The resulting mixture will replace the protein. For the yolk, the same mixture is used, but with the addition of citric acid and yellow pigment.
The yolk mixture is poured into a special mold and placed in a solution of potassium carbonate. As a result of the reaction, a film forms on the surface of the yolk. In order for the yolk to take on a spherical appearance and be evenly processed with a solution, the form is shaken. When the surface of the yolk has sufficiently hardened, the yolk is left in the solution for an hour. Then they are taken out, washed with water and dried.
The resulting yolk is placed in a protein mold, filled with a protein mixture, and in the same way, by placing it in a solution of potassium carbonate, a ready-made egg is created, which remains to be covered with a shell.
To do this, using a special thread, the egg is dipped several times into a solution of paraffin (石蜡), gypsum powder (石膏粉) and calcium carbonate, which, after drying, forms a shell.
The main differences between an artificial egg and a natural one: 1. The shell is slightly more shiny and rough. But the differences are quite insignificant, so it is not easy to determine an artificial egg by appearance. 2. The white and yolk of a broken artificial egg form a homogeneous mass after a while, as they are made of the same material.
One kilogram of natural eggs costs six and a half yuan. And the production of a kilogram of artificial ones costs 55 fen (0.55 yuan). The shop in which the Chinese worked made a thousand eggs a day, with a net income of over one hundred yuan. (100 yuan = 450 rubles).
Their production is becoming more and more perfect both in terms of mimicry for real eggs and in terms of cost, which is 25% of the store price. Possessing no nutritional value, fake eggs pose a serious health hazard from the harmful chemicals they contain. The photographs below show that a broken fake egg is very similar to a real one, but its yolk has a stronger shell, so it can be easily held by fingers. Otherwise, there are practically no differences. If the yolk is broken, then in appearance it is indistinguishable from the real one. The shell is also very skillfully made, there is even an air membrane in its lower part. It is almost impossible to distinguish a boiled egg from a real one.

Fake eggs from China: how they do it and how to recognize a fake. I'm freaking out!!! Artificial eggs from chemicals

So how are Chinese eggs made? Video