Customers across China have recently been finding what they suspect to be human teeth in various food products, including sausages and dim sum.
The bizarre series of discoveries kicked off when, on 13 Oct, a resident of Jilin Province posted on social media that they found a set of three artificial molar teeth while biting into a sausage they had bought from a local market stall.
Source: ETtoday
Initially, the vendor denied that the teeth had been there when the sausage was sold.
However, they later apologised after local market authorities got involved.
The vendor then offered to compensate the customer, but they declined, saying they only wanted the merchant to admit to their mistake.
Coincidentally, on the same day, a woman surnamed Chen allegedly found human teeth in dumplings from the popular local dim sum chain in Guangdong, Sanjin Soup Dumplings.
She claimed her father found two connected teeth in a siew mai, causing him to vomit.
Ms Chen insisted that the teeth were not her father’s.
Source: ETtoday
The store later stated that its dumplings were distributed by its head office.
However, staff from the headquarters noted that the product had “no quality issues”.
According to ETtoday, Sanjin Soup Dumplings is negotiating with the customer involved.
The following day, another similar incident was reported.
This time, a customer in Shanghai found dentures in a date paste and walnut cake purchased from Sam’s Club, a membership-only warehouse retail store with more than 50 branches across China.
According to South China Morning Post, a staff member at the branch was surprised by the discovery and said that food from the factory “should not have such problems”.
After returning to the store to file a complaint, the store offered the customer an RMB1,000 (S$18) compensation for the defective product.
However, she declined the compensation, reportedly saying “their attitude was wrong”.
Under Chinese Food Safety Laws, companies that produce or sell food below safety standards are obligated to compensate 10 times the food’s price or three times the customer’s losses due to the issue.
If the compensation amount is lower than RMB1,000, the amount should be the minimum reimbursement.
The series of incidents sparked widespread concern on Chinese media, with people speculating the origins of the teeth found in various food items.
Some suspected these were dentures, while others feared they were real, human teeth.
The set of teeth found in a sausage in Jilin Province.
Source: ETtoday
“Check the missing persons database to see if there are any teeth like these,” one netizen reportedly wrote.
Some even hypothesised that the products were made from remains from live organ harvesting.
The incidents are currently under investigation by local market supervision departments, with the exact causes still unknown.
Also read: 9 stalls at Penang food court shut down after fried rat found in chicken tray
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Featured image adapted from ETtoday.