oh god no whyyy: boba tea might cause cancer

[megashock_330]

noooo whyyyy

Study Reveals Boba Tapioca Balls May Cause Cancer

Or: How to Give a High School/College/Any Kid a Heart Attack in Eight Words or Less.

Sad, but true: German scientists may have just effectively killed another Asian-borrowed college student eating staple (the first being ramen), with a new study revealing the “presence of PCB-like substances” (said to strongly increase one’s risk for cancer), in a sample of tapioca boba balls.

The samples in question came from one milk tea shop from an unnamed nationwide German chain, whose spokesperson claimed to receive their tapioca balls from a mass producer in Taiwan. Thus far, it is unclear whether the PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) can be traced to any specific batch from the distributor or even what the level of toxicity was, though the scare has been enough to prompt at least one environmental spokesman to call for regular PCB testing in stores.

According to the New York Daily News, this tragic news comes to us now as Europe, which has stronger food safety restrictions than we do, has just started to catch onto the tapioca milk tea trend–researchers there perhaps bringing to light information which here might have until now been deemed negligible or inconsequential, at least according to our own FDA.

 

[Poonman]

fuck. for a while I'd drink a tall glass of that shit every second or third weekend whenever I visited buddies.

So sushi is a no go anymore because of all the cesium 137, mercury and fuck knows what else....and now this.

Between mad cow, everything with aspartame, over vaccinated chicken, honeyless honey from china that is full of antibiotics, etc I think all that we're left to eat is apples and carrots.

Christ...

 

[aria]

Sounds like a supplier issue to me.

I'd need more proof than a hyperventilating article from a food website.

 

[IDCHAPPY]

Everything seems to give you cancer these days

 

[Dr Shroom]

Sad, but true: German scientists may have just effectively killed another Asian-borrowed college student eating staple (the first being ramen).

Wait what. Ramen gives you cancer too?

 

[evil wasabi]

fuck. for a while I'd drink a tall glass of that shit every second or third weekend whenever I visited buddies.

So sushi is a no go anymore because of all the cesium 137, mercury and fuck knows what else....and now this.

Between mad cow, everything with aspartame, over vaccinated chicken, honeyless honey from china that is full of antibiotics, etc I think all that we're left to eat is apples and carrots.

Christ...

Is this about tea that uses natural tapioca or styrofoam bubble tea (tastes the same, and made from real corn!)?

Just about everything you listed is bad because the preparation isn't natural. Cows eat grass, not corn, aspartame sucks, chickens don't need vaccinations. But since we have shifted from a hunter gatherer system to a consumer producer system, we need to genetically alter everything so that natural foods are no longer viable options for consumption.

 

[Tacitus]

Boba-t will give you cancer
Boba-K will give you AIDS.

 

[RabbitTroop]

Man. Makes me really want boba right now!

 

[bokmeow]

Sounds like a supplier issue to me.

I'd need more proof than a hyperventilating article from a food website.

I think the cancer-causing finding may be news, but the addition of plastic to boba is not. It was used unscrupulously as an emulsifier alternative to palm oil, and limited not to just the tapioca in bubble tea. It was a huge scandal in Taiwan about late last year. Supplier of the plastic found in boba feigns ignorance, adhering to the claim that it had no idea the plastic it was supplying to food processing companies was being ingested by consumers, which prompted an outraged public to clamor for accountability and stricter oversight on industries, as much as for the protection of consumers as for the reputation of the Taiwanese brand.

http://www.wantchinatimes.com/news-subclass-cnt.aspx?id=20110527000061&cid=1103&MainCatID=11
DEHP contamination scandal threatens Taiwan's business rep
CNA and Staff Reporter | 2011-05-27 | 14:37 (GMT+8)

Staff remove sports drinks from shelves after authorities in Taiwan ordered the recall of all drinks and food suspected of being contaminated with the carcinogenic plasticizer DEHP. (Photo/Huang Guo-fong)

The latest food safety panic involving the illegal addition of the carcinogenic plasticizer DEHP to food and drinks has become a media circus in Taiwan, causing grave concern among local food and beverage makers that their image at home and abroad may be undermined by the scandal.

Initial investigations show that the tainted ingredients and products were either produced by Yu Sheng Chemical Co, or supplied by intermediaries downstream from the local company.

As the scandal continues to unfold and has so far sucked in nearly 170 up-stream and mid-stream suppliers and manufacturers, businesses that have been affected, including many household name brands, have been busy recalling or changing the recipes for their products in a bid to maintain their business and retain their reputation.

In southern Taiwan's Yunlin County, the local government has ordered cooperative stores at 50 elementary and junior high schools to temporarily suspend the sale of sports drinks and juices pending final examination results.

Meanwhile, the National Sports Training Center in Kaoshiung in southern Taiwan has stopped selling sports drinks to its athletes.

The concern is even greater among the general public in the country and businesses are deeply concerned that their hard-earned fame could be destroyed overnight.

Chen Mei-yen, general manager of Presotea, a popular tea drink chain which operates over 160 shops throughout Taiwan, said the company has recalled 7.4 tons of products allegedly contaminated with DEHP after learning of the incident on Monday and said that they will destroy all of them.

Presotea spokesman Chen Shien-chieh said that although specially prepared juices are not their main-selling beverages, business at the chain stores has dwindled by 20% on average over the last three days.

Elsewhere, Possmei Corp, which exports raw materials and ingredients for Taiwan's famous bubble milk tea to Bubbleology in London, a store pioneering the sale of the popular Taiwanese drink to the UK market, has also fallen victim to the scandal. Eight ingredients that the company purchased from upstream suppliers were discovered to be tainted with the plasticizer, though these did not include the materials sent to the London tea shop.

Earlier in the day, Possmei said it has notified its clients in more than 20 countries to stop selling its concentrated juice products until test results are made available.

Possmei chairman Wang Chun-feng voiced concerns that the DEHP contamination issue will have an impact the entire beverage sector just as Taiwan's bubble tea has begun making headway into some foreign markets.

In light of the fact that some of the contaminated products have already been exported, Taiwan's health department has reported the case to the World Health Organization.

 

[SNKorSWM]

Sounds like the story about melamine containing Sanlu milk products from China.

 

[NeoTheranthrope]

Now... If only I can find a way to make things like trucker hats, ironic T-shirts, and Instagram carcinogenic...

 

[ki_atsushi]

Everything is carcinogenic in high enough concentrations.

 

[neojedi]

Boba-t will give you cancer
Boba-K will give you AIDS.

Boba-F will give you Captain Solo?

 

[Heinz]

Of the times that I've tasted pre-packaged asian drinks, I find that they almost always taste off.

 

[Lagduf]

I don't even know what this stuff is.

Guess I'm just an untraveled lout.

 

[alec]

This stuff is good but I always thought it was expensive for what it is. PCB's suck, this is a bummer!

edit: oddly enough reading this makes me want a cigarette :/

 

[Domino-chan]

Man. Makes me really want boba right now!

I just had some not even last week, and now I want another one.

 

[SNKorSWM]

So chewy.

 

[LoneSage]

Wait what. Ramen gives you cancer too?

Not the ramen itself, but there's a superstition that eating it in its plastic/paper bowl is unhealthy because the hot water breaks down the cancerous elements and then they dissolve in the ramen or some crazy bullshit like that, I dunno man...

 

[Dr Shroom]

Sounds possible, I usually just buy the bagged ones which require some sort of keramic bowl to prepare.

 

[hyper]

Boba-F will give you Captain Solo?

ramen is pretty bad for you, I don't know if it gives you cancer but its like eating styrofoam and table salt nutrition wise

 

[trenog]

Not the ramen itself, but there's a superstition that eating it in its plastic/paper bowl is unhealthy because the hot water breaks down the cancerous elements and then they dissolve in the ramen or some crazy bullshit like that, I dunno man...

Yeah, people are figuring out that the age of plastic isn't as awesome when you're eating the chemicals that come from plastic.

 

[JammaGuy]

Bah, who these days isn't ginna die of cancer? Drink up!!

-Bill

 

[Blue Steel]

I don't give a fuck. I'll drink that shit up.

 

[SNKorSWM]

Not the ramen itself, but there's a superstition that eating it in its plastic/paper bowl is unhealthy because the hot water breaks down the cancerous elements and then they dissolve in the ramen or some crazy bullshit like that, I dunno man...

I think the story was that someone ate ramen for years went to see some doctor who told him there is wax buildup in his stomach from the cups, he was then persuaded to have surgery to remove the buildup and died during the operation.