Many reports of Deadly rice made from Plastic..
Rumours of Rice made from Plastic are circulating various social media websites right now (May 2015), but is it new news ?
Back in 2011, 4 years ago, a report on the www.koreatimes.co.kr website quoted:
Chinese fake rice is on shelves
20 January 2011
China famous for having all, making all, has now been reported to have made rice out of plastic and has distributed it.
The Korean-language Weekly Hong Kong in Hong Kong quoted Singapore media that “Fake rice made out of plastic is massively sold on the Chinese market.”
According to the report, some distributors are selling fake rice in Taiyuan, Shaanxi Province, and this rice is a mixture of potatoes, sweet potatoes and plastic.
“This ‘plastic rice’ is made by forming potatoes and sweet potatoes into rice-like shape, then adding industrial synthetic resins,” said a food expert. “Since the rice is different from normal rice, it is hard like stone even when cooked. Moreover, the synthetic resin in it is very harmful to the human body.”
One Chinese restaurant association official warns that eating three bowls of ‘plastic rice’ is the same as eating one vinyl bag. He added that since the rice is very dangerous there would be strict investigation on the rice factory.
In the mean time, merchants say that as the fake rice can leave huge profits, it is still sold in mass quantity.
This is not the first time for fake rice sold in China. A Chinese television report has alleged that a company in Xi’an, Shaanxi Province, has been producing a fake version of high-quality “Wuchang rice” by adding flavoring to ordinary rice.
Is it real ?
I quickly checked some prices to see how economical plastic rice would be, and having seen similar tiny plastic pellets being used in the plastic fabrication industry many years ago, I knew they would be easy to purchase, and therefore find a rough price.
The current cost of Rice in the wholesale market is US$ 360 per tonne
The current cost of small Plastic pellets in the manufacturing Industry is US$860 per tonne
The PLASTIC is more than TWICE the price of the real thing, so WHY would anyone do it. ?
A report from Reuters (not Social Media) on May 25, 2015 says:
Indonesian minister fears government sabotage in contaminated rice scare
“The synthetic rice distributor … may be making an attempt at treason or trying to sabotage the government,” Home Minister Tjahjo Kumolo was quoted as saying by the English-daily Jakarta Post.
The scare began last week when customers complained of nausea and dizziness after eating suspect rice from a vendor in Bekasi, a town neighboring the capital of Jakarta.
Initial tests indicated the rice was contaminated with plastic and plastic softeners.
Widodo, however, urged consumers to wait for official government test results before jumping to conclusions.
This indicates that there is some truth at least to the reports, but how widespread and why?
The Jakarta Post Newpaper has this report:
President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo said everyone should wait for the official results of the tests on the rice.
Although he urged all parties to remain calm, Jokowi questioned the motive behind the distribution of the synthetic rice, saying that it did not make sense if the aim was simply profit, since the cost of producing counterfeit rice was greater than natural rice.
Trade Minister Rachmat Gobel said that China has promised to help Indonesia solve the case, after a bilateral meeting with Chinese vice minister of commerce Wang Shouwen.
Plastic Rice in the Philippines ?
The Philippines TV5 online news has this report on the current subject:
“A video of a set of machines making what is being passed off as plastic rice is going viral on the Internet, but the National Food Authority gave the assurance that the rice the country imports is safe.”
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