Chinese state broadcaster CCTV has unveiled details of a second major food scandal to rock the country this year, this time involving wolfberries smoked and soaked in prohibited chemicals.
In a report aired on Sunday, the broadcaster spoke to wolfberry farmers and merchants in a region spanning 14 towns in Jingyuan County, Gansu province. The report also covered farms in Golmud, a city in Qinghai province.
At least half a dozen farm workers and dealers openly described on camera how farms would soak the berries in sodium metabisulfite, a banned substance in the industry, and spray them with industrial sulfur to preserve their appearance.
“The ones smoked with sulfur are red and beautiful,” one store owner told the broadcaster. “With the sulfur, you can store it longer, and pests don’t grow. Its toxicity is high.”
CCTV aired footage of farm workers preparing vats of thick, foaming sodium metabisulfite before washing the wolfberries in the hazardous chemical. Sodium metabisulfite is sometimes used in food preservation but is prohibited in the local wolfberry industry, per state media.
Some farms would also add in the step of smoking the wolfberries with industrial sulfur in place of sun-drying their crop, according to clips published by CCTV.
Wolfberries, also known as goji berries, are popular in Chinese traditional medicine and dishes such as hotpot, and were marketed as a superfood in the West. In 2023, mainland China exported an estimated 14,000 metric tons of wolfberries.
“People like you who sell in other places all have no idea,” one merchant told CCTV. “It just has a nice appearance.”
Many of the merchants and farmers spoke of the harms of consuming wolfberries tainted by the chemicals but said the practice was common.
“With sulfur, you sell at 17 yuan to 18 yuan per catty. Without smoking, it’s 10 yuan per catty, 9 yuan per catty. That’s not a good price,” one rural farm worker said.
CCTV said its staff tested the wolfberries and found them all unsafe for consumption.
A day after the report was released, the Jingyuan County Food Safety Committee office announced that it had launched an investigation into local wolfberry production and sales.
“Those responsible for violations of the law and regulations will be severely punished according to the law,” the office said in a statement.
The Golmud city government released a similar statement on Monday.
The wolfberry scandal comes just two months after another major food-related safety incident stunned the country.
In early July, state outlet Beijing News said it had uncovered multiple instances of unwashed chemical tankers being used to transport cooking oil. The practice had become so common that workers spoke of it as an industry standard, per the outlet.
China has been plagued for decades by a history of food scandals — from contaminated milk powder to gutter oil being re-used in restaurants — that’s whittled away domestic consumer faith in commercially sold foods.
Since his early days as China’s top leader, Xi Jinping has promised to crack down on food safety breaches, saying they would be central to how people perceived the government.
“If our party, while governing China, cannot even ensure food safety, and cannot do so over the long term, then people will start to question whether we are qualified to govern,” he said in 2013.
Allegations of excessive sulfur fumigation in the Chinese traditional medicine industry have surfaced before, leading retailers to often sell wolfberries and other products as “sulfite-free.”
