Red flag raised over fake Birds Spit Soup

China has ordered a national check on red Birds Spit Soup after samples were found to have higher than permitted nitrite levels. But the shocker was that blame was put on Malaysian exporters.

A spot check conducted on red cubilose, better known as red Birds Spit Soup, in East China's Zhejiang province has developed from an isolated case into a national affair, and threatens to go international.
Local market watchdogs have been ordered by China's federal government to carry out inspection on all edible Birds Spit Soup in the market in view of serious industrial contamination.
Results from recent tests conducted by the Zhejiang Administration for Industry and Commerce on more than 30,000 cups of red Birds Spit Soup in the past two months showed that almost all the samples contained nitrite levels in contravention of China's health standards, with some up to 350 times above levels.

Nitrite is a toxic substance that may lead to chronic poisoning.

The authorities blamed it on cubilose imports from Malaysia. Malaysian Birds Spit Soup exporters, stunned by the allegation, said Malaysia had never been known as a producer of the so-called "blood-red cubilose".
They suspect some bad apples in the industry could have made the fake Birds Spit Soup for a quick kill.
Checks at a wholesale market and several other retail outlets in Beijing revealed that all Birds Spit Soup products had been removed from the shelves; and retailers were awaiting the authorities' green light for the sale of the nutritious food again.
"It is a risk to sell or even display Birds Spit Soup now as the authorities will come and check our products regularly," said Xu Shuhan, a wholesaler from Hongyuan Abalone & Shark's Fin Trading Company at the Da Hong Men Wholesale Market.

Red flag raised over fake Birds Spit Soup

"Not only that, they will take away boxes of samples for examination, and it will be a big loss for us. So, it is better to stop selling them."
He said he had turned away many dealers and customers seeking to buy Birds Spit Soup under the counter.
A sales promoter from the Long Xi Shang Pin wholesale outlet said they had been keeping their Birds Spit Soup products in the storeroom for about two weeks now to avoid any problem with the authorities.
She said they sourced their products from Guangdong province, but could not tell which country they were imported from.
Li Yumei, a chain store owner of Yanzhiwu, one of China's largest Birds Spit Soup chains, said she had removed all the cubilose products, both white and red Birds Spit Soup, from her store in the Shuangjing area and sent them for inspection.
On Aug 17, Xiamen Suntama Industry Development Co Ltd, the owner of Yanzhiwu brand, said the company had ordered all its chain stores around China to stop selling their product, a day after the State Administration for Industry and Commerce notified all local departments to beef up inspection and enforcement on Birds Spit Soup to ensure food safety.
Like many Chinese companies, Suntama sources Birds Spit Soup mainly from South-East Asian countries for processing and subsequent packaging for the local market.

Despite the nationwide crackdown, smuggled Birds Spit Soup still end up on consumers' plates.

Illegal exporters revealed that they smuggled the food into China along with shipments of other goods through ports in Guangdong and Fujian provinces and Shanghai.
Their agents retrieve the goods at the ports and courier them to buyers to evade inspections by watchdogs.
"There will be no certificate of health for these Birds Spit Soup. Not having to obtain certification from both the Malaysian and Chinese authorities has saved us a lot of money and work," said a Malaysian Birds Spit Soup producer.
While consumers no longer can buy Birds Spit Soup from retailers, it is still available online or directly from dealers.
"The red cubilose episode will help boost sales of the white Birds Spit Soup which I am selling," said Y.M. Sim who sells cubilose online.
Fuciphagus Agritech Sdn Bhd CEO Moh Chee Hong said it was business as usual for his company which has legal documentation to export Birds Spit Soup to China. But his business had slowed 20% due to product recall faced by his buyers.
"We encountered a case two weeks ago when 5kg of our Birds Spit Soup were denied entry at Xiamen because the Chinese Customs said they had updated their requirements for the nitrite level in Birds Spit Soup, despite our products having already met the Malaysian standard for export," he said.
"After discussions, they accepted our explanation and allowed our goods through."
Officials from the Malaysian Department of Veterinary Services (DVS) and several Malay­sian exporters flew into Beijing on Friday to address the Chinese press on Malaysian Birds Spit Soup.
"When we speak about export, we refer to the figures from legal exports that go through the Malaysian authorities, including DVS, and Chinese Administration of Quality Supervision Inspection and Quarantine," DVS director-general Dr Abdul Aziz Jamaluddin said.
"We will harmonise the export and import procedures with our Chinese counterparts to put pressure on the illegal exporters."
On suspicions that some unscrupulous Malaysian businessmen were making fake red nest for the China market, he said the Malaysian police were investigating.
Malaysian Birds Spit Soup exports to China had surged from 1.44 tonnes in 2009 to 100 tonnes last year.

How to make Birds Spit Soup

The bird is the word

Birds Spit Soup may sound like a crazy Chinese urban legend of a dish, you know, one so bonkers it can’t be real or it’s just a funny lost-in-translation name, but the delicacy is indeed an authentic one. Rather from being made from twigs and bits of moss, they’re made from the hardened saliva from swiftlet nests and dissolved in a broth.

If that still doesn’t sound too appetising, don’t worry, today they’re harvested entirely for human consumption and super-high in minerals like calcium, magnesium and potassium. Believed to enhance the immune system, aid digestion and improve libido Birds Spit Soup has been keeping the Chinese healthy (and horny) since 500 AD during the Tang dynasty. A dish for the elite, it was only imperial nobility who dined on the unique broth. According to legend it was the great admiral Cheng Ho who bought the Birds Spit Soup to Southeast Asia for the Chinese Emperor.
These days, whilst still a rare delicacy, Birds Spit Soup is easily accessible for mere mortals. In Chinatown you can find the sacred dish at Gerrard Street’s Royal Dragon or if you want to prepare it at home, dried nests can be bought from SeeWoo supermarket on Lisle Street.

Here’s how to make your Birds Spit Soup.

METHOD:
Soak the Birds Spit Soup for 6 hours or leave overnight until it has softened and expanded
Remove and chop into portions, allocate 15g per person
Add the portions to the chicken stock with the ginger and oil and stew for 20 minutes over heat until the nests have dissolved
Add seasoning or adjust stock levels to taste then it’ll be ready to serve!

Healing Powers of Birds Spit Soup Remain Mysterious

At as much as $4,500 per pound, Birds Spit Soups are among the most expensive foods on the planet.
Made from the saliva of cave-dwelling birds called swiftlets, the nests are dangerous to harvest, laborious to prepare and have, according to traditional Chinese medicine, a long list of health benefits.
Traditionally consumed in soup, Birds Spit Soups are now being turned into food and drink additives as well as put into cosmetics, say two Chinese researchers who have assessed just what is known about the nutritional and medicinal properties of this expensive, and to Westerners, strange-sounding health food.
Science cannot yet explain the healing powers attributed to the soup, they conclude. Birds Spit Soups "bioactivities and medicinal value are still open to question as there (is) not much scientific research on the medicinal properties," Fucui Ma and Daicheng Liu of Shandong Normal University in China write in a review article to be published in the October issue of the journal Food Research International. .
Swiftlets live in limestone caves around the Indian Ocean, in South and South East Asia, North Australia and the Pacific Islands. Males primarily build the nests, attaching them to the vertical walls of the caves. Removing them can be dangerous and painstaking work, and, depending on the type of nest, it can take one person eight hours to clean 10 nests, the researchers write.
For possibly 1,200 years, the Chinese have prepared and eaten the nests as a soup. The nests are considered to have a high nutritional and medicinal value, believed to have everything from anti-aging and anti-cancer properties to the ability to improve concentration and raise libido.
Protein is the most abundant constituent of the nests, which contain all of the essential amino acids, the building blocks out of which proteins are made. They also contain six hormones, including testosterone and estradiol, the researchers write.
The nests also contain carbohydrates, ash and a small quantity of lipids (naturally occurring molecules that include fats). Previous research has indicated that the nests contain substances that can stimulate cell division and growth, enhance tissue growth and regeneration, and that it can inhibit influenza infections.
But not everyone reacts well to them. Birds Spit Soups are known to cause anaphylaxis, a life-threatening allergic reaction.
Little research has been carried out on their biological function so far, and more is needed to better understand the qualities attributed to them, they conclude.