Yes they do, I've stopped buying fruits and vegetables at Carrefour. It always seems like they get the rejects. And they also store them in the cold room. If you check a new batch as soon as it arrives, it's often soppy and cold.
People have the impression that because it's a "grande surface" with an international brand, all of their goods will be better.
As the saying goes, the devil is in the details. Some foods you buy in Hong Kong is indeed come from the mainland, but they are from the regulated farms with special export licenses and every batch is tagged and is supposed to be traceable to its origin. While the vegs you buy from the street might look fresh, but the farm may used household refuse as ferterizer with that you get all kind of things, included batteries, rechargeables, tampons :-))) ... etc (read heavy metal and medication...). That is exactly what the Guangzhou nightly TV current affair team found in their horror. The meat industry is also found in the same 'competitive' spirit to lower costs. So is kunming any different? No, a ride on the 'meter gauge' train from the North Station to Chinggong will make you think again. :-( ......
tiger, not sure if you're less likely to get fake or tainted goods in supermarkets. i think wal-mart had the pork that glowed a while back.
You are less likely, but that does not make it impossible. It does happen. Especially of the manager of the local Wallymart is also bent.
I think it is failr to say that the small store owner is more likely to be tempted to buy cheaper goods without asking questions, from the small supplier at the wholesale market, who also ask less questions, and the guys in the chain offering stuff in quantities or at prices that the manufacturers (of the genuine product) will not offer.
@Natsymir, yes, hong kong imports cabbage, cucumber and garlic from overseas (from japan, korea, australia, new zealand....even italy). as a matter of interest, you can buy onions in one pound bag in supermarket (say ParknShop) from Australia at HKD$67 which comes to about AUD$17 a kilo, rather expensive, i would have thought. :-) and australia produce are in demand by the chinese so much so that they are willing to pay a premium for. guess what, while china is exporting tiger prawn to Australia in cheap price, australia is exporting tiger prawn to china at a premium. :-)
Food for thought:
"...more than 10,000 tons of carcinogenic rice."
"...Chinese cigarettes contained extremely high levels of heavy metals, the story suggests that something is very wrong with significant swathes of China's agricultural land."
@Natsymir
I always wondered why C4 had such trashy looking produce. Then one day I went for something very early in the morning. pretty much at opening. At the opening, the produce is stocked high and fresh. But within half an hour, the army of old people had went through it and left a rubble of vegetables.
what's in western cigarettes? the daily recommended intake of vitamin C?
Tobacco products are a voluntary risk. Most people know the effects tobacco smoke, and make a decission.
People don't expect the risks to be added to with heavy metals, and then have this fact hidden.
But the key point is that if a lot of tabacco producing land is contaminated, by extension, much of the total area of agricultural land is contaminated. Including the land that our food is grown on.
Once the farm land is chemically contaminated it can take decades to purify itself and that is if not constantly recontaminated. Probably one of factors why chinese do not have a long life span. From what i have been reading those numbers are only going to get worse in the future. Recently i have observed in the little rural community i grew up in Minnesota, the air and water are exceptionally clean, people ate mostly beef and hogs raised locally and were fed clean feed. Most of us had gardens which we fertilized with manure from area farms. Many of the people i knew growing up have lived into their 80's or have recently died in there late 90's. Cancer is almost non-existant.
