Fake vs. Real Birds Spit Soup

Consumers’ Guide to Choosing Real/Natural Birds Spit Soups:

•Avoid Colored Birds Spit Soups

All colored (i.e., blood red, yellow, etc.) Birds Spit Soups are fake. All colored nests are ordinary Birds Spit Soups that have been dyed, resulting in excessive nitrite levels. (http://foodsafety.suencs.com/archives/18586). Some dishonest vendors apply red dye to their Birds Spit Soups in order to fetch higher prices. Nitrite is used as a preservative in curing meat, and to make meat redder. (http://foodsafety.suencs.com/archives/18686).

•Avoid Birds Spit Soups that are uniformly snow white.

The lower part of the nests is naturally darker than the body of the nests. Birds Spit Soups that are uniformly snow white most likely have been bleached with chemicals.

Fake vs. Real Birds Spit Soup

•Avoid snow white ‘wild/cave nests’.

Wild/cave nests are naturally darker than farmed nests as they contain higher level of impurities and debris. Snow white ‘wild/cave’ nests have been bleached with chemicals.

•Natural texture and fibers should be visible on the nest’s surface.

Natural/real Birds Spit Soups have dense texture on its surface. The texture is made up of noticeable irregular thick and thin fibers, the denser the better. The threads of the interior body should be loose and intercrossed. All Birds Spit Soup has to undergo feather and impurities removal process, thus creating tiny cracks in between threads. Therefore, a few cracks can be visible even on high quality Birds Spit Soups.
In contrast, fake and/or lower quality nests lack texture. Lower quality Birds Spit Soups are glued so as to lock up the water content, creating the appearance of dry-looking surface and thicker body. The glue makes it harder for the nests to be broken. Lacking texture, glue-treated Birds Spit Soup often has smooth and glossy surface, which is the result of the bonding of the gluing material and the Birds Spit Soup into a sheet.

•Natural nests have pleasant, elegant, egg like smell.

Natural Birds Spit Soup delivers a natural slight egg-like smell that intensifies after soaking. Fake Birds Spit Soups, on the other hand, (such as those made from pig’s skin or algae) do not deliver the natural egg-like aroma of real Birds Spit Soups. Fake nests have unpleasant odor, such as oily and/or algae smell. Lower quality nests that had undergone chemical treatment release unpleasant chemical odor after cooking.

•Feathers.

Minimal number of feathers should be found in soaked natural Birds Spit Soup. If there is none, chemical bleaching might have been applied on the nest.

Birds Spit Soup Price

The benefits of Birds Spit Soup are proven in China from many centuries and it forms one of the major staple foods of the country. Even after such huge demand for the product in China, the country is not allowed to harvest Birds Spit Soups. This gives great opportunity to other Asian countries to cash the opportunity. No doubt, that Birds Spit Soup fetches huge prices from China because of its nutritional value. Depending upon the season of cultivation, species of swiflet bird, quantity, and quality of Birds Spit Soups, the House nest prices may range between RM 8,000 to RM 12,000 per kg. And Cave nest may range between RM 13,000 to RM 18, 000 per kg.

This price gives soaring margins to the manufacturers since the cultivating costs of Birds Spit Soups is just a fraction of the selling price. However, to earn maximum benefits, they need to maintain high quality and restrict the use of chemicals and bleaches during the cleaning process.
In the past, China had temporarily banned the import of Birds Spit Soups because of the presence of high quantities of nitrite in the products. Owing to factors, which leads the industry to crash sometimes, the prices of the raw Birds Spit Soups may drop or fluctuate according to the market demand. However not any more if you buying from us. We are here to ensure the consistency of stock, quality, stringent cleaning process so that you can enjoy the greatest taste & yet the benefits of the premium Birds Spit Soup.

Birds Spit Soup Types

There are two types of places to develop the nests of swiftlets:
In the caves
In the cultivated or abandoned houses

1自然洞穴 Cave nests

洞燕窝通常在收获马来西亚，即沙巴和砂拉越的天然洞穴、岩洞及悬崖上。由于受到大自然气候及天然环境所影响，专捕食天然杂虫，所以一般也相信它们所制的燕槽比较高营养,也因为采集风险高，价格也水涨船高。 燕窝的质地比较韧及硬，颜色比较深、外形不讨好、杂质较多、浸炖时间较长及爽口，
Cave nests are usually harvested in the natural caves of Malaysian states namely, Sabah and Sarawak. These caves vary in height and size, but they are typically found on lofty cliffs elevated against the sea. These kinds of nests usually contain more feather and dirt than the other variant.

2.人工屋育House Nests

这类燕窝是在屋檐或是人工燕屋下系统化培养。这种燕巢的质地比洞穴巢顺滑，它包含较少的杂质和羽毛。因此，燕窝可以保留其月牙或碗型或羽毛这也提高采集效益，经过消毒精选，和洞燕相比成本可以大大减低， 也不失其原有营养价值。
These nests are made by swiftlets under the house roof in the countryside. House nests are harvested from swallow houses. The texture of this kind of nests is smoother than the cave nests, and it contains lesser contaminants and feathers. Therefore, it is possible to retain the crescent kind of bowl or the cupped hand shape of the nest even after the feathers are removed.

燕子类型分为白燕窝，黄燕窝，血燕窝。

In these places, the following types of golden swallow nests spring up- white Birds Spit Soup, yellow Birds Spit Soup, and blood Birds Spit Soups. After the nests are taken off the houses, they need to be cleaned and processed before delivery. Malaysia single-handedly sends millions of Birds Spit Soups to Chinese communities all over the world. The main consumer countries of Birds Spit Soups include China, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand.

燕窝的品质：Quality of Birds Spit Soup

In terms of quality of Birds Spit Soup, they are classified into different categories such as:
Cave Birds Spit Soup 洞燕盏
House Birds Spit Soup 屋燕盏
Feather Birds Spit Soup 毛燕盏
Grass Birds Spit Soup 草燕盏
燕窝的处理分为：Although the benefits of Birds Spit Soups are innumerable to overwhelm anyone, but there are only two variants of Birds Spit Soups-:
Unprocessed Birds Spit Soups or Raw Birds Spit Soups 未经处理燕盏
Processed Birds Spit Soups or Clean Birds Spit Soups 已经处理燕盏
形状也分别为：条状，片状，饼状，粒状，散状
The nests come in different shapes such as strips, whole pieces, cakes, pieces, balls and broken pieces.