Posted on 01/28/2024 6:39:27 AM PST by Red Badger
A viral trend of frying and consuming starch toothpicks has swept through South Korean social media.
The "Fried green toothpick" which went viral following a social media trend.
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A peculiar food trend took over social media in South Korea, featuring videos of people eating deep-fried toothpicks shaped like curly fries. These edible picks, made from starch, gained popularity, but the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety intervened. In a social media announcement, the Ministry strongly advised against consuming fried toothpicks, emphasizing that their safety had not been tested.
"Their safety as food has not been verified," the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said in a posting on Wednesday on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter. "Please do not eat (them)."
Despite the warnings, videos of people enjoying the crispy snacks, often coated with cheese powder, continued to attract attention.
The trend's popularity was driven by its novelty and environmental consciousness. Starch toothpicks, widely used in South Korea, are biodegradable, appealing to eco-friendly consumers.
However, concerns about potential contaminants and unknown additives raised questions about the safety of these trendy snacks.
Videos of the toothpicks, a sanitary product, being fried in oil and eaten were going viral, it added.
Food colouring is used to impart a green hue to the toothpicks, made from sweet potato or corn starch, which are seen as being environmentally friendly and biodegradable.
Often used in restaurants in South Korea, they can also be used to pick up finger foods.
Online eating shows, called "Mukbang", which often show people eating an excessive amount of food or unusual dishes, are popular in South Korea.
"It's very crispy," one TikTok user said in a video, while crunching up fried toothpicks.
Sometimes I get box shipments with starch-based packing peanuts in them. You can eat them but I don’t recommend it. I suppose those toothpicks are similar.
However, if they were truly meant to be toothpicks, that means they were designed to be put in your mouth and poked around your gums, so they shouldn’t have any dangerous contaminants in them.
What is it with Asians and food? It seems the more bizarre it is the more they like it.
I spent a year in Korea. Koreans will eat things that a Coon-Ass won’t.
The original ‘foodies’..................
They will have us eating bugs one way or another!.....................
Would you like flies with that?..........................
I will eat anything that does not eat me first................
It seems the more bizarre it is the more they like it.
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That’s definitely true... The saying in Cantonese is that they “eat anything on 4 legs except the table.” Years ago, I travelled extensively throughout China and I can tell ya, I saw stuff eaten in Guangdong Province that defined imagination. When I did a search just now on ‘most disgusting foods in China’, I found this list... https://thehelpfulpanda.com/foods-from-china-that-will-gross-you-out/ Let me just say that I’ve tried most of these and as disgusting as they may be, none would make my list of ‘the most disgusting foods in China’. Ever try bee pupa, sea horse, fish eyes, ants, silkworm grubs, ‘drunken’ crab, lamb chuan (that is likely rat meat), sheep penis and on and on. One would think that everyone has limits and while mine will stretch way further than most, I know where mine are.
To be fair, a lot of this stems back to Mao and the cultural revolution when he was attempting to kill most of the country by starvation. When faced with the alternative of starvation, people do get ‘creative’...
Stupid foreign msm headline.
They’re just FRENCH FRIES!!!
They look like green cheetos.
The Chinese eating sheep penis is not much different than Americans eating mountain oysters.
For all you libs on tic-toc, don’t think they have actually fried toothpicks. It’s just a name like “shoe-string potatoes.
But if you want to fry shoe-strings or toothpicks, it’s your choice! Check with the government first.
And fop dessert...Tide pods.
Wait for this to catch on with Gens X, Y, Z.
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