It seems that there are always reports surfacing about some product of other being counterfeited in China. Books, music, DVDs, watches, water, Loch Ness monster - you name it and someone in China counterfeits it. For example, the latest bogus food item they have rolled out: Counterfeit crocodile.
Hong Kong's Consumer Council tested 24 samples of crocodile meat from dried seafood shops across the territory and found that 16 were fake, constituted instead from dried lizard or snake.
"It is difficult for ordinary people to differentiate between the meats of various reptiles. Consumers are advised to buy … at reliable shops and get receipts that state clearly what they are buying," Council chief executive Connie Lau was quoted by the Standard as saying.
Three people were arrested for selling fake products, the paper added.
While there have been no reports of people falling ill from eating the fake meat, the paper quoted Chinese medicine practitioner Julianna Chau as saying the consumption of snake meat could cause excessive "heaty" effects in certain people.
Heaty? Doesn't it all taste like chicken? One has to wonder why there is a crocodile shortage in China. There certainly isn't one in Vietnam at the moment:
VietNamNet Bridge – Local hunters and army marksmen have captured or shot dead 80 crocodiles that have escaped from the country's biggest crocodile farm last Saturday. The exact number of escaped animals remains unknown.
Managers of Khatoco company – that owns the Yang Bay crocodile farm in the central coastal province of Khanh Hoa that had 5,000 animals said the search for the escaped reptiles was becoming more complicated after some of them were spotted in the Song Cai River, 30km away from the farm.
On Tuesday, residents in Dien Khanh township, 40km from the farm, found and killed a 90kg crocodile and sold it at the local food market. Earlier, seven others were caught by boatmen at Yang Bay waterfall, 2km from the farm.
Of course, it may have been a snake disguised as a crocodile.
Chickens are much easier to raise, and apparently taste just like alot of other meats.
It’s probably a lot easier to kill most lizards and some snakes than it is a croc.