Arsenic & Lead with Your Hot Pot? New Food Safety Concerns

Some days tainted food seems as much a part of Chinese cuisine as a bowl of rice. Either its contaminated soil that makes its way into tobacco and vegetables or the overabundance of pesticides that have people scrambling for organics. It seems the new poison du jour is everyone’s winter go to – hot pot.

According to an article in today’s Global Times hot pot often contains chemicals to boost flavor in lieu of the more expensive natural peppers or spices. The chemical blends used in the base “could contain heavy metals, such as arsenic and lead, risking damage to the nervous and digestive systems and could lead to mental disorders and cancer.”

More damning than the list of side effects are several of the people interviewed in the article. One restaurateur admitted he “never eats hotpots at his restaurant because boiling the chemical additives for a long time can increase their harmful effects on health.”

A former hot pot chef claims that “Eighty percent of hotpots served at (restaurants) contain such chemical additives,” while Sang Liwei, a lawyer specializing in food safety, is quoted as saying, "It's almost an open secret that chemical additives are added in hotpots."

The use of additives stems from cost-cutting measures and restaurants are able to get away with such practices because food and safety checks merely look at the cleanliness of the environment – they pay no heed to what ingredients are used in restaurant kitchens.