Inferior Chinese shredded shiitake mushrooms invade the group catering and snack market, operators live in fear
(Continued from the previous article) Chinese shiitake mushrooms are illegally grabbing market share. Besides whole dried shiitake mushrooms, they are also conquering Taiwan's affordable snacks in the form of "shredded shiitake mushrooms." Many trading firms 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 meat thick soup, oily rice, meat zongzi and fried rice noodles.
A reporter's investigation found that many food service operators have no idea how to distinguish Chinese from Taiwan shredded shiitake mushrooms. "When ordering I just say I want 'shredded shiitake mushrooms'; the supplier only sells one kind, so I have no other choice." But some operators insist on using local shiitake mushrooms in their dishes, stressing 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 Taiwan shredded shiitake mushrooms for years.
Illegally imported Chinese shredded shiitake mushrooms are easy to obtain, 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. NewsMarket sampled 6 items of Chinese shredded shiitake mushrooms and 1 item of Taiwan shredded shiitake mushrooms and sent them for pesticide testing; 3 of the Chinese shredded shiitake mushroom items tested positive for the fungicide benomyl. As Chinese shredded shiitake mushrooms overrun all of Taiwan, how should the government carry out control at the source?
Shiitake mushroom smuggling is serious; without quarantine inspection it may affect health
Every year before the Dragon Boat Festival, Chinese shiitake mushrooms (shredded) become a major smuggled good. At the end of April last year, the Kaohsiung Customs Office of the Customs Administration seized more than 10,000 kilograms of smuggled shiitake mushrooms. Now, as the year-end approaches, the Kinmen coast guard has launched a special pre-New Year crackdown operation; in the single month of December last year, five cases of Chinese shiitake mushroom smuggling were seized at the shallow-water wharf of Liaoluo Commercial Port.
Smuggled dried shiitake mushrooms (shredded) are often wrapped in cardboard boxes and plastic bags and hidden in lower-tier 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 people's health.
Chinese shiitake mushrooms, which our country explicitly prohibits from being imported, have long entered the Taiwan market in large quantities through detours via third countries and smuggling channels, thereby earning price differences. Although differences in production environments and operating practices across countries lead to clearly different appearances of the shiitake mushrooms produced, for example Taiwan shiitake mushrooms have longer stems, a lower proportion of cracked caps and are mostly wrinkled, many consumers still find it very difficult to identify domestic mushrooms (for identification methods, see here).
Characteristics of Chinese shredded shiitake mushrooms: ballast marks, wet and soft mushroom bodies, thin black strips
However, if the form is cut into thin black strips of "shredded shiitake mushrooms" in which the mushroom flesh is almost invisible, the likelihood that the source is China is very high. Chen Tsung-ming, chairman of the Taiwan Mushroom Development Association, who has long assisted the government in seizing smuggled shiitake mushrooms and identifying their place of origin, said that Chinese shiitake mushrooms smuggled in by boat often come in two forms: "compressed flat shiitake mushrooms" and "shredded shiitake mushrooms." Although Vietnam also exports large amounts of dried shredded shiitake mushrooms, as far as he understands, this kind of dried shredded shiitake mushroom is produced only in China and does not come from Vietnam itself.
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 "wet and soft mushroom bodies." The reason is that operators on the other side of the strait are accustomed to first slightly rehydrating dried shiitake mushrooms, then once softened cutting them into strips, and then tightly pressing them into brick shapes to save transport space and costs. These shiitake mushrooms usually have a moisture content as high as 30-50%, feel soft to the touch, and unlike Taiwan, Japan and South Korea shiitake mushrooms, which are dried more thoroughly and can even be snapped apart like cookies; Taiwan shiitake mushrooms are rarely sold shredded, and if sliced, the slices are also wider and the mushroom flesh is clearly visible.
(Top) Chinese shredded shiitake mushrooms are dried and flattened into strips, (bottom) very different from domestic shiitake mushroom slices
The quality of shredded shiitake mushrooms is concerning and raises food safety doubts
Chinese shiitake mushrooms with relatively high moisture are prone to mold during transport, the mushroom bodies often have an off odor, and preservatives may also be added to extend shelf life, making this a major hidden concern for food safety. These smuggled shredded shiitake mushrooms are found throughout the public's daily diet, such as in shiitake mushroom meat thick soup, zongzi, oily rice and fried rice noodles. "This most often appears in processing plants and bucket meals. In some shiitake mushroom meat thick soup, the shiitake mushroom is just a black strip and is even mistaken for wood ear; it is very likely from China," Lu Yun-sheng said.
When NewsMarket visited a wholesale market in person, it found that as long as one 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 price of Taiwan shredded shiitake mushrooms.
Taichung's famous dried goods wholesale market, "Jianguo Market," is visited not only by people buying New Year goods but also by food service and group catering operators coming to buy stock. Sister Yue (pseudonym)'s shop carries two kinds of shredded shiitake mushrooms, with the price differing by a factor of two. If customers want them for their own consumption, she recommends buying Taiwan 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 noodles and oily rice people usually eat almost all use Chinese shredded shiitake mushrooms. I buy stock for them every month."
Chinese shredded shiitake mushrooms are poor in quality, deliquesce with a sour taste, and small insects crawl around
Chinese shredded shiitake mushrooms are usually not placed in the shop but kept in a refrigerated room in the warehouse. The operator asks the customer how much they want, weighs it out, and then bags it up. Some shiitake mushroom shops say outright that they do not sell shredded shiitake mushrooms. "The quality of those is all bad. If you want to eat them, you had better buy whole shiitake mushrooms and cut them yourself at home; that way they are freshest," said boss A-Man (pseudonym).
Comparing Taiwan and Chinese shredded shiitake mushrooms in practice, the former has more mushroom flesh and is thicker, while in the latter one mostly sees only a thin black strip of the mushroom cap part, and the mushroom bodies are wet and soft, appearing stuck together in clumps, with white spots covering the surface, possibly already moldy, with a strong smell mixed with the sour odor of deliquesced amino acids, and even a few small insects crawling around, as well as mixed-in plastic bag fragments.
Operators unknowingly buy Chinese shredded shiitake mushrooms, thinking they are produced in Taiwan
Shredded shiitake mushrooms add flavor when used in dishes, but they are not cheap. Especially before the New Year, when dried shiitake mushrooms repeatedly rise in price, some shops have no choice but to use the cheaper shredded shiitake mushrooms, without the slightest idea that what they bought are illegally imported Chinese shredded shiitake mushrooms of questionable quality.
Walking into an established shiitake mushroom meat thick soup shop in Taichung that has been operating for ten years, Old Cao (pseudonym) generously let the reporter inspect the bags of shredded shiitake mushrooms in the stock area. Their appearance clearly resembles Chinese shredded shiitake mushrooms. The dried, thin, long shredded shiitake mushrooms expand after soaking in water, and the area of mushroom flesh becomes larger; at first glance, they indeed look no different from domestic shiitake mushroom slices.
After the reporter told him that these were Chinese shredded shiitake mushrooms, boss Cao cried out in surprise in his own defense: "(When ordering) I don't specifically say whether I want Taiwan or Chinese (shredded shiitake mushrooms); the supplier only sells one kind, so I have no other choice." This shows that the shop did not clearly 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 an oily 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 also divided into Chinese and domestic, and had always thought what her shop used was domestic shiitake mushrooms. "Don't the operators who openly sell Chinese shredded shiitake mushrooms have a 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 excitedly.
(Top) Shiitake mushroom meat thick soup using Chinese shredded shiitake mushrooms (bottom) Shiitake mushroom meat thick soup using Taiwan shredded shiitake mushrooms
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