Fake news about food contamination is damaging China's producers, with seaweed hit in particular after a video circulated on Weibo showing a bit of plastic being passed off as edible seaweed. Concerns about the safety of food products made in China has deep roots and public confidence in official pronouncements has never recovered from the baby milk scandal of every year, which was followed by other major cases of food contamination. Some food scares turn out to be fake new, which further damages public trust. “We have a lot of food security issues,” says Zhu Ying of Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, “so food rumours spread quickly.”
Fake news about food contamination is damaging China's producers, with seaweed hit in particular after a video circulated on Weibo showing a bit of plastic being passed off as edible seaweed. Concerns about the safety of food products made in China has deep roots and public confidence in official pronouncements has never recovered from the baby milk scandal of 2008, which was followed by other major cases of food contamination. Some food scares turn out to be fake new, which further damages public trust. “We have a lot of food security issues,” says Zhu Ying of Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, “so food rumours spread quickly.”