In China, they add melamine to the pet food to make it look like it has higher protein, make “soy sauce” from human hair, soak fish in ink to make their color better, and feed eels birth control to make them longer and more slender. They also pick up discarded KFC chicken pieces from the garbage and sell them at street vendor booths, Shanghai Daily reports.
He said a cleaner can earn 300 yuan (US$38.86) a month in wages from KFC but selling chickens “rescued” from the trash can bring them up to 6,000 yuan a month.
“A drumstick is sold at two yuan and a chicken wing is 1.5 yuan,” he told the newspaper. “The job is popular because of the ‘potential income.’”
Indeed, pure profit. You know what they say, one man’s trash is another man’s lunch.
Maybe it’s time certain products should have to sport a label that says, “contains ingredients from China.” — BEN POPKEN
Fuzhou vendors resell discarded KFC chickens [ShanghaiDaily]
(Photo: China Daily)
Raymond writes:
- “…When I lived in the Philippines, I saw this show on TV that investigated such activity. They sell the chicken to “roadside eateries” and they get recooked and made into things like fried chicken or some stew; this is because it cost only a few cents as opposed to a few dollars for real chicken meat…”







I don’t see how this is any different from normal KFC.
Ughh.. Never eating at a YUMS owned place again.
Already stopped eating at “Taco Bell” while ago after the rats report. Thanks god my stomach is doing much better to..
I didnt need to exercise, just needed to stop making pit stops at Taco Bell..
@Wasabe: Thats halarious.. No I really don’t see how that is different.
Post the link about feeding the eels birth control. I would really want to see that.
Confucius says he who eat KFC know why chicken crossed the road, to go shit his pants
@urban_ninjya: This NYT article mentions it. (was linked in the post)
How do you make soy sauce out of human hair? …
The same way you make a taco sauce of kittens–you cook it!
China is an economic scourge upon this earth. They’ll toxic waste to children if it will make them a few dollars…wait they already do that.
“They Chinese, they not dumb, they sell chicken from trash drum…”
Fuzhou, Chinese food producers!
I love the taste that chicken picks up after marinating in refuse for an hour or so. I had no idea I could buy it already prepared that way!
mmmm…..This story is making me hungry. I think I am having KFC tonight.
Maybe it’s time certain products should have to sport a label that says, “contains ingredients from China.”
That and maybe it’s time we start funding FDA inspections again and try to avoid giving leadership of said oversight office to an industry crony.
What are those people in brightly-colored clothes doing? Holding a traditional Chinese festival in a KFC?
About the soy sauce and human hair, that has to be an urban legend. No way they could get their hands on enough human hair to make it profitable. Plus, I bet it wouldn’t even work. If I ever get my long hair cut off, I’ll try it myself.
(Now, I wouldn’t be suprised if they were making soy sauce out of ink-soaked fish…. )
It’s important to note that, in this article, KFC is not the one selling discarded chickens! Rather, it’s a street vendor who is grabbing trash from the local KFC and reselling it. I’m no fan of the commercialized chicken that is KFC, but let’s make sure we point out the true culprits.
Other practices in China:
In some cities, people collect used water bottles to refill with tap and resell as bottled water.
Washing lettuce with tap water
Ice cubes made from tap water
Spiking beer with balming fluid for that extra kick
Mixing milk powder with flour and selling it off as entirely milk powder.
News Flash: Yesterday’s white rice is today’s fried rice.
Also, the human hair soy sauce story is true. It’s not like they grind the hair down and add water. They use some sort of processing to extract the amino acids from the hair. Supposedly, these amino acids mimic the taste of real soy. So really, the hair is just for flavoring. I’m sure the rest is just water, salt, MSG, and food coloring.
Meanwhile, Chinese doctors are making a killing in the food poisoning industry.
Again, another sensationalist over-the-top headline and article.. hey, maybe when we get the rats out of the taco bells, stop feeding our cattle dead dogs and cats, and not have kids dying from eating jack-in-the-box is when we can call out China or any other country for their “disgusting” food practices.
By the way, I showed this to my fiancée who is going to China soon, she appreciated it. Thanks for keeping us informed!
All I can say is YOU try to keep up with feeding 1.3 billion hungry Chinese!
Everyone knows you’re always hungry after Chinese food…and maybe dead after KFC (maybe its a conspiracy by the Chinese government to decrease the population)!
Holy Crap!…Would they sell that too?!
Adrienne
http://adriennezurub.typepad.com
Ramen noodles not enough?
Gi me Chikin!
i hear Chinese KFC is not even made out of chicken, but cat. pass the MSG-laced soy sauce made of human hair and skinny eels, please!
Isn’t l-cysteine made from human hair, feathers, or boar bristles? Anyone ever read a food label, like for pizza. I believe there a lot of products here (the US) that have that ingredient in it.
Oh gross. And I was eating breakfast too… yuck.
Upton Sinclair just rolled over in his grave.
Sounds like the chickens don’t even make it into the garbage- the “cleaner” is reselling them.
I’ve eaten my fair share out of the dumpster- you can get some really great scores, and some guys have it down to a science, but I would never dive a KFC.
Tres nasty. But do they offer it in extra crispy?
Since things already say made in china….they definetly should also say, has ingredients from china…so ill no what can kill me and what no to buy at the supermarket…
DONT EAT KFC… REMEMBER THAT SHOW CNN AIRED HOW HUMANS WERE BEATING THE CHICKENS AND KILLING THEM INHUMANELY! I’M ABOUT TO REGURGITATE JUST THINKING WHAT ELSE CHINA (ALONE) DOES WITH ITS FOOD. strong suggestion. dont eat in china.
Yeah, those Chinese sure are dirty COMMIE bastards. Oh wait, let me go look in the mirror…
I love how a few fucked up desperate vendors can tarnish the entire country in Westerner’s eyes. I’ve never heard about this practice before, but everybody in China knows that street vendors are the grimiest of grimy bastards there (that’s saying a lot, believe me) and avoid them on a regular basis. KFC is MASSIVELY popular with Chinese people anyway, but if you were visiting why the hell would you bother eating there in the first place? There’s enough YUM brands in the States, and everything tastes exactly the same. Except it’s way more irritatingly crowded.
Never heard about the soy sauce, on which I call shenanigans. Don’t we feed hormones to our animals anyway? I can’t find an example anywhere because I’m lazy.
@lanceb: I’m pretty sure they do that in a lot of places. Lettuce with tap water?! Oh the heavens, I’m fainting! (Unless you were being sarcastic.)
Man, I could go for a Famous Bowl right now.
While in China, my husband witnessed the kitchen staff cutting vegetables and meat on the cement in the alley next to the kitchen. I don’t think he ate for the rest of his trip.
oh yea i just got a email with photos of the guys going to chicked farms and buying the dead chickens for pennies then plucking them on a crate, hot water soak, yellow dye soak, and tossed in the corner onto the floor to dry a little to make the skin tight, i think thats why they fry so crispy.
i was looking up the butterfly shrimp recipe on youtube and ran across eating live octpus that was crawling off the plate, they eat lots of things raw and after properly butterflying and battering a few shrimp i could see why. LOL i’m surprised that they cook anything. Oh yea i know that wings with sauce are atleast a day old.