315 actually did not report on “chicken mud,” and this issue itself has been confusing the official exposure of CCTV’s 3·15 Gala with other food safety hotspots that occurred concurrently.

Zhihu Answer: Journalism

The 315 evening event mentioned nine manufacturers, and none of them included potato starch (daoniansan). Now, the major brands that were nominated have lost all heat, while this potato starch – which is a national staple (found on almost every street food corner across China with a large number of stalls, likely the most prevalent) – has been brought out to argue and it feels like potato starch is being entirely scapegoated. I’ve looked at online news sources; CCTV released a report on ham on 3.15, listing only a few manufacturers’ ingredients, and none of those manufacturers were primarily producers of potato starch. There was nothing obviously wrong with their ingredients, and then this reporter used information from an employee at one factory who said they sometimes use chicken bone meal to substitute for meat – something that was rumored – and she went to inquire on Taobao about pet food suppliers selling chicken bone meal: “Can people eat it?” This isn’t a stupid question, is it? They dare to sell it to pets? Then rumors spread that potato starch contained chicken bone meal.

Now, many factories are likely to close down, and tens of thousands of small street vendors across the country face the situation of having goods unsold and no business.

Real Life on Earth

According to Xiaoxiang Morning News reports on March 17th, the day after the “stuck starch tube collapse” incident in Sanmenxia, Henan, an elderly woman set up a stall selling starch tubes two days later, but after two hours, she still didn’t attract any customers and ultimately quietly ate the starch tubes herself. The photographer said that he himself usually eats four or five starch tubes at once, but after learning that the starch tubes contained chicken bone mud, he refused to eat them. That day, out of curiosity about whether anyone would still buy her sausages after they were exposed, he saw that the vendor hadn’t sold a single tube in two hours.

• The aunt didn’t know anything about the starch tube incident; she only knew that suddenly no one was buying her grilled sausages today.

• The elderly woman was right; she was just trying to make a living, and the elderly woman didn’t even know if the product had any problems or whether it was qualified, nor did she know what bone mud was. She didn’t know about the internet; she was simply a bottom-level person finding ways to survive.

• The starch tubes collapsed, but the bill was paid by one after another of bottom-level vendors. It’s a painful process.

Zhihu Answer: Regulatory Issues

A few years ago, during an afternoon, my colleague who was working in Beijing and I went to have lunch. We passed by a small stall selling sausages and sizzling beef skewers.

I blurted out, “With all this black technology starch sausage and sizzling beef, are people even going to eat it?” Because in my view, the last time I ate a starch-based ham sausage was probably about fifteen years ago.

My colleague hesitated and then said tactfully, “Maybe you’ve been living in a big city. Actually, in our hometown, pickled cabbage, instant noodles, and ham sausages are everyday staples.”

“When I was in school, my dad would only let me have a sausage on the road if I got full marks. It wasn’t because they were unhygienic; sausages simply cost 1.5 yuan, enough to buy two pounds of vegetables.”

“The way we call instant noodles, carbonated drinks, and spicy strips ‘junk food’ – I only learned about that after coming to Beijing for school.”

I realized how arrogant my casual words had been and stopped talking. But this incident left a deep impression on me.

In reality, this is the daily life of most Chinese people.

Their lives don’t include fancy “Mediterranean diets,” “green organic vegetables,” or “non-GMO soybeans.” They only care about whether they can buy some cheap and delicious vegetables, meat, and snacks, and enjoy the few moments of happiness their families have.

They’re curious about what ingredients make up the things on shelves, whether they might harm their health, and if there are any strange chemical components.

It’s simply not something they should be concerned with or understand.

They simply believe that if there’s a problem, someone should be in charge, and it shouldn’t appear on the shelves.

But after watching a 315 episode, we realized that wasn’t the case.

High-tech modifications were found in electronic scales and gasoline pumps, requiring YouTubers to take videos risking beatings to expose them, allowing regulators to “suddenly realize” and investigate;

The pork belly and starch sausages sold on live streams and small stalls turned out to be made with rotten meat and bone meal, requiring CCTV reporters to go undercover and film before anyone verified the source and tracked it down;

“Health wines” heavily promoted on television and airport advertisements needed someone to expose their entire backstory through videos before they were urgently removed overnight, disappearing from the public’s sight.

Once a year’s 315 event, every six or seven products are randomly pulled – is that enough?

How do you find those who have already eaten or bought them?