I prefer opium in my Chinese food

Food fraud is as old as restaurants, and new detection technologies are uncovering some old practices.

opium.chinese.foodAccording to Eater, plenty of restaurants have a secret seasoning or a prized sauce recipe they keep locked away in a safe — but what if the hidden ingredient that made the food so good was actually illegal narcotics? Nearly three dozen restaurants in China have been discovered sprinkling powdered opium poppies on their dishes, reports CNN.

Five restaurants have already been prosecuted, and another 30 are currently being investigated. According to a news release by the China Food and Drug Administration, the affected businesses include noodle shops, a restaurant specializing in soup dumplings, a sake snack bar, a fried chicken shop, and dozens of others serving everything from mutton broth to black duck.

Morphine, codeine, and heroin are all derived from opium poppies; while it’s not known for sure whether a garnish of poppy powder gives food addictive qualities or not, it’s illegal under Chinese law and has been since 2013— but nonetheless, it remains a popular food additive.

 

Chinese restaurant serves noodles laced with opium poppy

A Chinese noodle vendor in northern Shaanxi province has been detained for 10 days after admitting he added powdered poppy plant — from which opium is made — to his dishes to keep customers coming back, Chinese media has reported.

china.noodle.opiumThe owner said that he bought 4 catty (2kg) of the substance for 600 yuan ($98) in August. He said he added it to his food to make it taste better and to improve his business, the Huashangbao paper reported.

The opium-laced noodles came to light after police stopped a vehicle driven by a 26-year-old man and tested him for drugs not long after he had consumed a bowl of the noodles.

The man was detained for 15 days on charges of drug abuse and was not released until family members told police how they had also eaten at the same restaurant and tested positive for the drug.

The paper said the risk of becoming a drug addict from the laced noodles, even if eaten continuously for a long period of time, was unlikely.

It added that lacing food with opium poppy was not uncommon in China, with similar cases in 2010 and 2012.