Fake Eggs are No Joke
January 5, 2010 
52 Comments
Fake eggs are still going strong in China, despite the hilarity of it all to people outside of the Mainland PRC. In the few English-language sites that have picked up on this story, the whole idea seems absurd. The major theme across the English-language sites is Hoax! mostly due to the small profit margin to be made and perhaps just the sheer comedy of making fake eggs for a living.
Danwei.org published a small report in 2004 and several blogs reported on fake eggs such as The Raw Feed and Chinaview (in 2007 and 2006), but a look at the stories from Chinese language sources (below) show that the problem is still there, if not bigger than before. Additionally, most of these “ads” and reports are dated 2009.
I wish I could laugh along with you, but unfortunately I love eggs and live in China.
The Price is Right
Online guides show the production process
The profit margin for fake eggs, estimated at USD$70 per day, is more than enough for the common Chinese to engage in the business and there’s nothing China’s poor won’t do to get ahead. The list of faulty (or deadly) products coming out of China is long and will continue to lengthen for some time to come. It’s simply a matter of economy and history.
Knowing this, I have decided to give up eggs for a while.
A cursory search of Chinese language news sites brought up more than 8,000 hits for “man-made eggs” including numerous news reports, instructional videos and most galling of all, dozens of ads for training manuals for interested entrepreneurs.
Info From Chinese Websites
18Dao.com thoughtfully put together a collection of information about man-made eggs in China, including videos and pictures. The English translation follows the original Chinese text, which from here on will appear within grey boxes.
据业内有关人士介绍，鉴别人造鸡蛋，首先从蛋壳上看，人造蛋”的蛋壳特别光滑，剥开后可发现，蛋清不粘稠，并且易与蛋黄混成一团，闻上去有一股化学药剂味道。真鸡蛋闻上去有腥味。据介绍，人造鸡蛋每个蛋成本5分，最低售价2角，1人日产1500个左右。
Man-made eggs usually have shinier shells
Man-made eggs: using man-made materials to make chicken eggs.
An Insider’s Report: In order to tell the difference between man-made and natural eggs, the first method is to inspect the shell. Man-made eggshells are particularly shiny and if the egg is opened, the egg white is not as sticky as a natural egg and is easily mixed in with the egg yolk. There may also be a light chemical smell coming from the egg yolk/white, whereas natural eggs have a fresh smell.
A man made egg has a cost price of 5 fen (1fen=0.01RMB — 1USD=6.83RMB). The lowest sales price found is 2jiao (1jiao=0.1RMB). One person can manufacture aprox. 1500 eggs in one day.
人造鸡蛋所用的都是化学成分，主要是利用海藻酸钠的钙化，顶多就是一个凝胶体，其中的明矾、明胶等平时只是作为食品的添加剂、辅助剂，而国家标准对添加剂用法、用量都有明确规定，在人造鸡蛋中却成了主要成分，对人体没什么好处，营养角度上与真鸡蛋相比更是不可同日而语。
同时，有关专家指出，氯化钙也分食用级和工业级，色素也是一样，而这些人造蛋厂家都是地下工厂，很难说这些工厂用些什么原料。研究发现，长期食用人造鸡蛋会造成大脑记忆力衰退、痴呆等
An Insider’s Report: Man-made eggshells are made from Calcium Carbonate (CaCo3). The egg whites and egg yolks are made from the following materials: Alginic Acid, Potassium Alum, Gelatin, Calcium Chloride (with water) and artificial coloring.
Fake egg fries
Man-made eggs are manufactured with chemicals, most importantly through the calcification of Alginic Acid. (Editor’s Note: The actual formula described above for Alginic Acid is C6H8O6 + some form of Na, which we were unable to locate. If anyone has an idea about this particular molecule, feel free to add a comment!). Man-made eggs are basically solidified gel. Most of the ingredients are additives that are regulated under Chinese law. None of these additives have any health benefits; man-made eggs cannot be considered a viable alternative to natural eggs.
Many of the ingredients involved in the manufacture of man-made eggs come in industrial and commercial forms. Considering the extremely low cost price of man-made eggs, it is uncertain what form of these additives the manufacturers are using. Research has shown that long-term consumption of man-made eggs can lead to memory-loss and dementia.
More Evidence to Examine
Check out this Health News Sohu story written by a journalist for the Qilu Evening News in Shandong, March 27, 2009.
In this story, the journalist follows the trail of one of the ads to a man in Shandong who claims to be the “Father of Man-made eggs”. The man, never named, tells how he charges 800RMB (US$120) per student. In his classes, the “Father” teaches how to make the egg-shell (the most important part of the process) as well as the yolk and white. According to the report, the man has taught college graduates as well as peasants and enjoys a comfortable living — safe from the authorities or anyone else — teaching down and out Chinese how to make fake eggs and get rich.
What a Fake Egg Ad Looks Like
Pouring the calcium chloride “yolk”
Perhaps most damning and most appalling are the ads themselves, which describe the ease with which one can make 400RMB (~USD$80) per day manufacturing eggs. The ads give tips on whereand how to sell the eggs, which ingredients to use and leave contact information via QQ, web and cell phone for interested parties who want manuals (RMB350 – RMB800) or equipment (RMB400 – RMB1000). Below are a few choice translations from ads we found online:
人造鸡蛋在掀掘金风暴
“人 工合成鸡蛋”是选用几种易购食品原料，采用无电式机器设备，经高科技蛋体模拟程序制作而成。其内部含有抗癌蛋白肽，十八种氨基酸、碘、多种维生素等，经常 食用可预防肿瘤扩散、糖尿病、肥胖症、降低血压、增强人体代谢免疫力等诸多功能。我公司推广“人工合成有壳鸡蛋”技术以来，培训（函授）了全国20多个 省、市、区的7万多学员，取得了良好的社会效益与经济效益，在第三届中国科技新产品名优博览会上荣获金奖。每个鸡蛋成本3~5分，市场售价 0.22~0.38元，一人日产1800个，日赢利330元以上，如扩大规模生产鸡蛋，当地的粮油店、饭店、宾馆、居民食堂、个体散户，就是巨大的购买 力，在市场竞争中，您学会此项目何愁不赚钱。全部学费：880元，函授580元赠机器一台，蛋壳、蛋膜、蛋清、蛋黄专用器具各一套，人造牛肉、鸡肉等五大 仿真系列全套技术。
技术机密，未经许可，不得翻印，违者必究！
Chicken: You’re Fired!
Man-Made Eggs a path to riches!“… Our company has promoted the technology of “Man-Made Eggs with Shells” and trained at least 70,000 people in more than 20 Provinces and cities nationwide. We have a great reputation and excellent economic results, in part due to our performance at the Third Annual New Technology and Product Exhibition, where we won the Gold Medal …
… Total cost for one-on-one training: RMB880; or RMB580 for a manual and a set of equipment for eggshells, egg whites and eggyolks as well as manuals for man-made beef, chicken and five other manuals for man-made products.
Technical secrets are under copyright and any dissemination without permission will be punished!
答:综上所述,与传统人造蛋技术相比,我公司的技术具有如下显著特点:1.仿真度更高:不仅蛋壳外形与真蛋没有区别，而且蛋黄、蛋壳、蛋衣(即蛋膜)与真 蛋相差无几，食用方法及味道同真鸡蛋相同，蒸、煮、炒、烧皆可。完全达到了在市场出售可以假乱真的效果.2.操作更简单:文化要求低, 不需要机器设备. 只要一套模具和正确的科学配方即可生产制作. 3.成本更低廉:只需要六种主要原料,一个重量和真鸡蛋一样大小的人造鸡蛋的总成本５－８分钱.4.应用更广泛:该技术可以用来做人造鸭蛋、人造鹅蛋和人 造鹌鹑蛋等等,而且还可加工单黄、双黄.
总之一句话,新的技术让您赚钱更多更快,一个新的财富时代已经到来!
Fake eggs promote mental retardation
Below is an excerpt from a rather lengthy ad which you can read in its entirety here.
Question #9: What are the special benefits of your company’s egg manufacturing process?
Answer: As you read above, compared to traditional manufacturing processes, our company offers the following obvious benefits:
- Similarity to Real Eggs Much Greater: not just the shell, but also the yolk and the white, the surface of the egg and the consistency display no difference to the real thing … can be placed along real eggs in the market
- Easy Method: Required level of education very low, no need for special equipment …
- Much Lower Cost of Goods: Only need six different ingredients … cost aprox. 0.05RMB – 0.08RMB
- Much more versatile: Can be used to manufacture goose eggs, pigeon eggs as well as single and double yolks
In a word … this is a new method which will help you grow rich!
The raw materials are mostly chemicals
It’s important to understand that in developing countries like China, India, and most of Africa, the idea of “bad money” doesn’t exist. When you’re hungry, desperate, and competing with a billion other people, anything goes. For people living in the developed West, there is no justification for lead-based toys, weak steel or man-made eggs, but in the shark-infested oceans of newly capitalist countries like Russia and China, there is no justification for not corrupting oneself to get ahead: ethical behavior will get you respect, even as you drift away into insignificance.
What do you think? Sound off in the comments below.
and my search for fake eggs begins
yeah its too bad because my friends can do little about it except look closely at their eggs and pray for the best for now — but fake eggs are really just the bottom of the ice berg. i think in the years ahead we will see more and more people making choices with their RMB/USD/Euro that take into account quality and safety, its already happening
I really cant believe the fake eggs….. I just wanna say,Chinese can do anything they want ….
Alchemy!!!
will these fake eggs make real omlet
No one knows. You should make a fake egg omelette and report back!
I don’t like China.
Who does…???
i don’t like china as well they are good in bullying small country like philippines claiming the some island belongs to them like the Scarborough Shoal even if it’s under the 200 nautical mile limit. They are also good in creating poison like the one that they did on the MILK with MELAMINE, many children died because of that, authorities in Korea also discovered fake medicine made out of human fetus, as indicated on the test there are harmful bacteria on the powder inside the capsule. In short, they are good in making harmful things, very greedy people.
I am having difficulty in determining whether the fake egg story is, in fact. real.
Can you supply some governmental website or similar which has information regarding this issue?
Thanks
I always have a hard time believing what the Government/news tells people here. Just watch cctv9 for awhile but here’s a report from ShaanXi that came out several months ago.
http://tinyurl.com/3v8zo6g
Google translated it pretty well I think.
This is anecdotal but I believe it’s relatively common knowledge among educated Chinese urbanites that fake eggs exist. I’ve heard them alluded to by people numerous times in normal conversation.
Yeah I know but the thing the way rumors spread here. It seems like if more than 3 people say the same thing then it’d taken as gospel by everyone else.
That being said I usually buy my milk and eggs from the more expensive Korean stores in the area.
True, good point. A few weeks ago everyone was scrambling to buy table salt because of the Sendai earthquake.
Yeah same here in Tianjin my wife sent me out to find some luckily I already had pouch on my western food shelf. It still sits there unopened lol
I’ll be in Chengdu next week anything really good to do with a 2 1/2 year old there?
with a 2 yr old i’d head out to people’s park and walk around, take a boat around the lake and just have a good time. The Huanhuaxi Creek by Du fu ‘s cottage is nice too, always lotsa kids out there. there are some swimming pools but it might not be time yet for that … thats what i got off the top of my head — go to our forum and start a thread, that might get something going …
http://www.chengduliving.com/forum/
China is a big country and there is nice people but now a days in china is culprit.
China peoples are doing very bad, they don’t have the guts in real war. Only they are doing abnormal events…so please don’t destroy the world
$70 a day is big money in the US, too!
The ingredients don’t sound harmful, but it probably tastes really “blah” and you’re not getting protein etc. We have millions of workers in the US who don’t make anything near that.
yeah $70 is more than enough for people here to do pretty much anything. college cash for kids anyone?
Why not just keep more chickens?
Looks like you can make these fakes in your kitchen with very small set up costs.
Keeping chickens costs money, and then you need to keep them healthy and safe and feed them, then replace them when they get old.
Fakes seem like pure profit comparatively, I reckon.
Hope those people making fake eggs gets cancer from the chemicals their using
what’s next?…. make a fake chicken that lays fake eggs? sheeessshh.. what’s with these people now.
That is probably coming next, yes.
At least we’ll know the answer to that age old question…
“What came first the fake chicken or the fake egg”
What happen if the (fake) egg is boiled? Will it look, smell and taste the same as real boiled egg?
i am in taiwan..yesterday i bought some eggs .. and after breaking one i found that there is no smell of raw egg in it .. and it is also watery .. i think it is fake ..can you people please let me know more about how to recognize a fake egg? i am gonna go to the shop !and also thinking of notifying health department taiwan .. thought dont know if anything fruitful will come up or not !
I know this story sounds silly, but I believe it, because crime doesn’t have to make sense. Remember the old couple and the jello pudding?
“Alexander Clement, 68, of East Northport, N.Y., would drive his wife, Christine, 64, to a local supermarket, where she would stock up on boxes of Jell-O pudding. Then, when they got home, Christine would empty the contents of the boxes and replace them with bags containing a mixture of sand and salt. Then the couple would reseal the boxes and return them to the store for a refund.
It seemed like a foolproof scheme — the couple saved $1.40 per box, got to have their pudding and eat it too, and no one’s the wiser. That is, until a customer at one of the stores they visited purchased one of the refilled packages and complained to store personnel. The store called the cops, who traced the boxes to the Clements.”
I’m a Canadian living in China now, and I’m sure that we encountered a fake egg. My husband was advised not to eat this egg by his work colleagues because they believed it was fake. We inspected it closely, and found that the shell was perfectly smooth and had a slight sheen to it. When we compared it to some eggs we had bought from the corner supermarket, we noticed that those eggs had “grittier” shells and traces of chicken poop on them. From now on, I think I’m going to only buy eggs that have poop on them to be sure that they are real. Surely the fake egg makers won’t resort to adding fake poop as well (we hope). We threw out the fake egg before cracking it open, but now I wish we had just to see what it was like inside.
Wow, fake egg spotted! To my knowledge, none of us have actually had a confirmed sighting. If you see another one, that would be awesome if you could take a photo to share with us. Thanks for your comment Michelle.
But why can’t they put real poop on the fake eggs? It won’t take too much effort to do that…
Plastic in milk, fake eggs, sewage oil, none of these has ever been seen outside China so how can you conclude that “poverty” causes people to make such things? Finland was destroyed after the war and very very poor. Japan also. In fact, all of humanity was until very recently in complete poverty. However Chinese people create and are the sole contributors to these evil trades. Africa is much poorer than China but no such luck. It’s time to face the facts, China is evil
I live here and honestly anything and everything goes. If you think fake eggs are bad…read up on the illegal (yet somehow tolerated) market for eating baby fetuses… This is very real and many will tell you about it. I think the equation is quite simple. People – God = lack of moral and values.
Wakawaka, I completely agree!!!!!!!!
this effort can be made in the production of chicken,that is wise for the Chinese.
What’s going on……? Is it helpfull to people? If not,please take step to makers of it.I’m saying it to the chaireman of UN.
The china are destroying the people life
Stop Chinese the money you are making will kill you only
fake egg
fake food
future – fake human