Substandard shredded shiitake mushrooms from China invade group catering and snack foods; operators angrily say buying mushrooms keeps them on edge
(Continued from previous article) Chinese shiitake mushrooms are illegally grabbing market share. Besides whole dried shiitake mushrooms, they have also captured Taiwan's affordable snack foods in the form of "shredded shiitake mushrooms." Many trading companies openly sell Chinese shredded shiitake mushrooms. These shredded mushrooms, which have not undergone quarantine inspection and raise safety concerns, are widely used in snacks such as shiitake mushroom pork thick soup, glutinous oil rice, meat zongzi, and fried rice vermicelli.
A reporter's investigation found that many food service operators have no idea how to distinguish Chinese from Taiwanese shredded shiitake mushrooms. "When ordering, I just say 'shredded shiitake mushrooms.' The supplier only sells one kind, so I have no other choice." However, some operators insist on using domestic shiitake mushrooms in their dishes, emphasizing that Chinese shredded shiitake mushrooms come from inconsistent sources and are inferior in both texture and quality. To safeguard consumer food safety and brand reputation, they have used Taiwanese shredded shiitake mushrooms for many years.
Illegally imported Chinese shredded shiitake mushrooms are easily obtained, and at only half the price of domestic shiitake mushrooms, many food service operators, out of cost considerations and without knowing it, have become accomplices in fueling the smuggling trade. The NewsMarket sampled 6 items of Chinese shredded shiitake mushrooms and 1 item of Taiwanese shredded shiitake mushrooms for pesticide testing, and 3 of the Chinese shredded shiitake mushroom samples tested positive for the fungicide benomyl. Faced with Chinese shredded shiitake mushrooms encroaching across Taiwan, how should the government carry out source-level control?
Shiitake mushroom smuggling is serious; lack of quarantine inspection may affect health
Every year before the Dragon Boat Festival, Chinese shiitake mushrooms (shredded) become a major smuggled commodity. At the end of April last year, the Kaohsiung Customs of the Customs Administration seized more than 10,000 kg of smuggled shiitake mushrooms. Now, as the year-end approaches, the Kinmen Coast Guard has launched a special pre-Chinese New Year crackdown operation. In December last year alone, five cases of Chinese shiitake mushroom smuggling were seized at the shallow-water dock of Liaoluo Commercial Port.
Smuggled dried shiitake mushrooms (shredded) are often wrapped in cardboard boxes and plastic bags and hidden in lower-layer containers. Kaohsiung Customs pointed out that smuggled Chinese shiitake mushrooms (shredded) have not undergone quarantine inspection and could risk causing a major agricultural disease outbreak. If they flow into the market for sale, they will have a huge impact on public health.
Chinese shiitake mushrooms, which our country explicitly prohibits from being imported, have long entered the Taiwan market in large quantities through third-country transshipment and smuggling channels to profit from the price difference. Although differences in production environments and operating practices among countries lead to clearly different appearances in the shiitake mushrooms produced, for example, Taiwanese shiitake mushrooms have longer stems, a lower proportion of cracked caps, and more wrinkles, many consumers still find it very difficult to identify domestic mushrooms (for identification methods, please see here).
Characteristics of Chinese shredded shiitake mushrooms: ballast marks, soft and damp mushroom bodies, thin black strips
However, if the form is cut into thin black strips of "shredded shiitake mushrooms" where almost no mushroom flesh can be seen, the likelihood that the source is China is very high. Chen Zong-ming, chairman of the Taiwan Mushroom Development Association, who has long assisted the government in cracking down on smuggled shiitake mushrooms and identifying their place of origin, said that Chinese shiitake mushrooms smuggled in by boat often appear in two forms: "compressed flat shiitake mushrooms" and "shredded shiitake mushrooms." Although Vietnam also exports large quantities of dried shredded shiitake mushrooms, as far as he understands, this kind of dried shredded shiitake mushroom is only produced in China and does not originate locally in Vietnam.
Lu Yun-sheng, an assistant research fellow in the Plant Pathology Division of the Taiwan Agricultural Research Institute, also pointed out that Chinese "shredded shiitake mushrooms" generally have two major characteristics: "ballast marks" and "soft and damp mushroom bodies." The reason is that operators on the other side are accustomed to first slightly rehydrating dried shiitake mushrooms, then cutting them into shreds after softening, and then tightly pressing them into brick shapes to save shipping space and costs. These shiitake mushrooms usually have a moisture content as high as 30-50%, feel soft to the touch, and are not like Taiwanese, Japanese, and Korean shiitake mushrooms that are dried more thoroughly and can even be snapped and crumbled like crackers; Taiwanese shiitake mushrooms are rarely sold shredded, and if sliced, the slices are thicker and the mushroom flesh is clearly visible.
(Top) Chinese shredded shiitake mushrooms are flat and strip-shaped; (bottom) they are very different from domestically produced shiitake mushroom slices
Shredded shiitake mushroom quality is concerning; food safety doubts exist
Chinese shiitake mushrooms with relatively high moisture content are prone to mold during transport, the mushroom bodies often have an off odor, and preservatives may be added to extend shelf life, becoming a major hidden concern for food safety. These smuggled shredded shiitake mushrooms are found throughout everyday public diets such as shiitake mushroom pork thick soup, zongzi, glutinous oil rice, and fried rice vermicelli. "This appears most often in processing plants and bucket meals. In some shiitake mushroom pork thick soup, the shiitake mushroom is just a black strip and may even be mistaken for wood ear; that is very likely from China," Lu Yun-sheng said.
When The NewsMarket visited a wholesale market in person, it found that as long as they asked whether "shredded shiitake mushrooms" were sold, many shops readily admitted to selling "Chinese shredded shiitake mushrooms," and at a cheap price, only half the selling price of Taiwanese shredded shiitake mushrooms.
Taichung's famous dried goods wholesale market, "Jianguo Market," is visited not only by people buying Chinese New Year goods but also by food service and group catering operators coming to buy in bulk. Sister Yue (pseudonym)'s shop carries two kinds of shredded shiitake mushrooms, with prices differing by a factor of two. If customers are buying for themselves to eat, she suggests Taiwanese shredded shiitake mushrooms at 50 yuan per liang; the cheaper Chinese shredded shiitake mushrooms (30 yuan per liang) are mainly supplied to group catering and snack shops. "The fried rice vermicelli and glutinous oil rice people usually eat almost all use Chinese shredded shiitake mushrooms. I stock goods for them every month."
Chinese shredded shiitake mushrooms are poor in quality, with deliquescent sour odor and small insects crawling around
Chinese shredded shiitake mushrooms are usually not placed in the shop but stored in a refrigerated room in the warehouse. The operator asks the customer how much they want, weighs it out, then bags and packs it. Some shiitake mushroom shops say outright that they do not sell shredded shiitake mushrooms. "The quality of those is all poor. If you want to eat them, you had better buy whole shiitake mushrooms and cut them yourself at home; that is the freshest," said Boss A-man (pseudonym).
In an actual comparison of Taiwanese and Chinese shredded shiitake mushrooms, the former has more mushroom flesh and is thicker, while the latter mostly shows only a thin black strip of the mushroom cap portion, and the mushroom bodies are soft and damp, appearing stuck together in clumps, with white spots covering the surface that may already indicate mold. The smell is strong, mixed with the sour odor of deliquesced amino acids, and several small insects can even be seen crawling around, along with mixed-in fragments of plastic bags.
Operators unknowingly buy Chinese shredded shiitake mushrooms, thinking they are produced in Taiwan
Shredded shiitake mushrooms add flavor when used in cooking, but they are not cheap. Especially before Chinese New Year, dried shiitake mushrooms frequently rise in price, so some shops have no choice but to use the lower-priced shredded shiitake mushrooms, without the slightest knowledge that what they bought is Chinese shredded shiitake mushrooms that were illegally brought into Taiwan and are of questionable quality.
Walking into a long-established shiitake mushroom pork thick soup shop in Taichung that has been operating for ten years, Boss Cao generously let the reporter inspect the bags of shredded shiitake mushrooms in the stock area. Their appearance clearly resembled Chinese shredded shiitake mushrooms. The shriveled, slender shredded shiitake mushrooms expanded after soaking in water, and the area of mushroom flesh became larger. At first glance, they indeed looked no different from domestically produced shiitake mushroom slices.
After the reporter told him that these were Chinese shredded shiitake mushrooms, Boss Cao exclaimed in surprise and grievance: "(When ordering) I would not specifically say Taiwanese or Chinese (shredded shiitake mushrooms). The supplier only sells one kind, so I have no other choice." This shows that the shop did not understand the differences in the sources of shredded shiitake mushrooms, nor did it understand how the food safety risks of the two differ.
Auntie Huang, who has run a glutinous oil rice stall at Chiayi East Market for more than ten years, pointed out that in the past she did not know shredded shiitake mushrooms were divided into Chinese and domestic, and always thought what her family used was domestic shiitake mushrooms. "Do the operators who openly sell Chinese shredded shiitake mushrooms really have no problem? Can't the government manage this at the source? Can you please not make operators live in fear even when buying shiitake mushrooms?" she said emotionally.
(Top) Shiitake mushroom pork thick soup using Chinese shredded shiitake mushrooms; (bottom) shiitake mushroom pork thick soup using Taiwanese shredded shiitake mushrooms
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