Your Latest WTF Answered: How Soy Sauce is Made from Human Hair

[jmowreader]

Jeeze, talk about there really being Soylent Green...

In recent days, we've learned that adulteration of animal feed with melamine is a common Chinese practice because melamine assays as protein on standard laboratory tests--the "amine" suffix on this shit isn't there by accident.

We also learned that some Chinese "food" product manufacturers make soy sauce from human hair. What the hell?

Turns out...

http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/waiwai/archive/news/2004/11/20041117p2g00m0dm999000c.html

that this is actually a very old process--it originated in World War II. The flavor of soy sauce comes from the amino acids found in soybeans, and the same amino acids are in human hair.

http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/weblog/permalink/hair_made_soy_sauce_an_update/

Now this shit gets disgusting. Take a dose of antiemetic and read on...

Some outfit in China's Hubei Province was producing an amino acid powder using "the latest technologies in bioengineering." Turns out that the "latest technologies in bioengineering" involved buying human hair from barbershops and hospitals (complete with medical waste) and mixing it with powerful, carcinogenic chemicals to extract the proteins from it. They then sold it to soy sauce makers who added industrial sodium hydroxide for flavor, industrial hydrochloric acid to neutralize the industrial lye, and various spices to neutralize the taste of the industrial chemicals, then selling it as "Hongshuai Soy Sauce," which due to its low price and good flavor became popular in foodservice operations.

Oh yeah: the amino acid powder is rich in l-cysteine, a protein that improves the texture of baked goods, so bakers were buying it too.

You'll enjoy this too: the press members investigating the human-hair soy sauce asked the technicians who made it if they bought it themselves. None of the people who made this would eat it.

And yes, the Chinese government has banned this product's manufacture.

You ever get the feeling that Smokey Yunick is the patron saint of the Chinese food industry? "Well, nobody said I couldn't put industrial waste in food."