KIMCHI... South Korea vs. China  

11/3/2005 2:29 am Last Read: 3/5/2006 9:28 pm	We all know that in sports competition like the quadrennial Olympics and biennial Asian games, these two countries battled it out for supremacy in the Asian Region. These two protagonist are entangled with a new kind of conflicting interest cause by an erroneous method in food preservation , and this is about the side dish and staple food famous in Korea , that is "KIMCHI". Kimchi is a spicy Korean staple food, made out of a pickling process on fermented ingredients compose of , radish, cabbage with garlic, ginger and hot pepper. Now comes the trouble, the famous side dish has a ban imposed on its importation from China mainly because of the round worm parasite found in human excrement's believe to have been discovered from the imported appetizer. To add that it is also said that lead contamination is high on the preserve products. Question is ? Is it because some Chinese agricultural method used human feces as fertilizer for their crops? (is this true), Or the theory that excrements from cats and dogs raised in the farmland could have cause the contamination. The banning of the importation of this spicy pickled Korean side dish has triggered another retaliating investigation, this time on the Chinese side in which the cosmetic products imported from South Korea, authorities claim were sub-standard in quality. News media were focus at the most towards the said "Parasites eggs found in Kimchi". High percentage of the imports bound for Japan have to pass in strict measures for food safety. Best thing they can do is to learn the process and do it "Home made Style". Much to their concern for health safety and ease out their anxieties of the Kimchi war. sources** Channel News Asia TV, Yahoo News
wanders 1789 posts  11/3/2005 6:37 pm	No offense meant to Ms. Sandara Park!
elah12 3606 posts  11/3/2005 8:58 pm	"Is it because Chinese agricultural method uses human feces as fertilizer for their crops?" How true is this? Do they have bases for this allegation? Maybe it's just a word of mouth that the media exaggerates. A contributing factor to this might be because this two countries have long been rivals in sports. Reminds me of the time when we were kids and for a while we stopped drinking MILO because it was said to be made from cultured worms... Well, I guess, I'd take the cultured worms more than the human feces... Thanks for this info, wanders
cherish_amor 11/25/2005 6:04 pm	Wanders, this is very interesting to me as I love kim chee. Well, I hope those Korean restaurants here make their own kim chees