‘FAKE EGGS’ SCARE BOOSTS ‘LOCAL EGGS’

‘Fake eggs’ scare boosts ‘local eggs’

April 12, 2011, KOTA KINABALU: The news reports about fake eggs in Pulau Tikus, Penang have become a hot topic of discussion among egg sellers and consumers in the city despite there being no report of such ‘eggs’ making their way into the local market.

Egg vendors at the city’s central market, who mostly obtain their supply from local poultry farmers, said not a single ‘fake egg’ has been found.

Vendors Aryeo Pedro and Norhisyam Mursfid said fake eggs would not make their way into the state.

“Customers who previously bought their eggs from the supermarkets have now started buying eggs from us because they know that we source our supply from the local poultry farmers.

“Most customers said that the eggs in supermarkets are cheaper but they are not confident if the eggs are real,” said Aryeo.

Another vendor Galim Godem said most of his customers would now ask whether the eggs he sells are real, adding that reports about fake eggs being sold in Penang have caught the attention of customers in the state since last week.

It was reported that last week, Consumers Association of Penang (CAP) president SM Mohamed Idris was shown ‘fake eggs’ by a housewife after the latter found something strange when she tried to cook them.

The housewife reportedly said the eggs did not smell like real ones, were tasteless, had unusual shape and were larger than real eggs.

“The fake eggs also had rougher shell than the genuine ones. When cracked, there was no sign of chalaza, the structure inside the egg that keeps the yolk in place,” he said.

“The egg whites and yolks of the fake eggs quickly mixed together, unlike that of real eggs,” Idris said.

He added that after boiling the egg and cutting it open, the yolk appeared to be yellower than that of a normal egg.

The fake eggs were said to be sold at RM11 per tray.

Officers from the Ministry of Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism on Thursday seized 270 eggs from stalls at the Pulau Tikus wet market following the media reports of fake eggs.

The Penang Health Department has sent samples of the eggs for laboratory tests in Kuala Lumpur and the results are expected to be known within a week.

Meanwhile, the Department of Veterinary Services and Animal Industry (DOVSAI) has not received any report from vendors on ‘fake eggs’.

DOVSAI director Dr Yeo Boon Kiat told The Borneo Post yesterday that sales of eggs produced by poultry farms in Sabah are not affected by reports on the discovery of ‘fake eggs’ in Peninsular Malaysia.

“No one came to see me. The farmers are quiet about it,” Yeo said.

He added that even though egg producers in Sabah do not necessarily have to go through DOVSAI before marketing their eggs, the department knows each and everyone of them.

“We know where their farms are located,” he said when asked on matters related to monitoring.

He said the probability of fake eggs being sold in Sabah is minimal since the state has ample supply of farm-produced local eggs to meet the demand and the state does not import eggs from anywhere.

State Health Director Dr Mohd Yusof Ibrahim, when contacted, said so far, the department has not received any complaint about ‘fake eggs’ here.

Mohd Yusof said ‘fake eggs’ are man-made and the issue involving these ‘eggs’ was highlighted by the Consumers Association of Penang (CAP) president S. M. Mohamed Idris, following a complaint from a housewife who showed the ‘eggs’ to him.

Investigations carried out by CAP revealed that the shell of the ‘eggs’ was made from paraffin wax, gypsum powder and calcium carbonate, while nitrium, alganite, alum, gelatine, benzoic acid, calcium chloride, water and colouring made up the contents of the ‘egg whites’ and ‘yolks’.

Asked if consuming the man-made eggs would have any adverse effect on human health, Mohd Yusof replied, “Yes, your health will be affected.”

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