In Guangdong province, a vendor added borax to pork meatballs to enhance their texture, despite knowing that consuming 1 gram of borax can be toxic for adults. Over the course of a year, the vendor added 22.5 kilograms of borax to the meatballs. This news made headlines on March 15.
According to reports from various media outlets including Guangzhou Daily on March 14, a man named Wu in Guangdong purchased 22.5 kilograms of borax between September 2023 and September 2024. He used this borax to process pork sauce and pork meatballs, knowingly violating the regulations on food additives. Wu then distributed and sold these products to multiple local restaurants and consumers, selling a total of 2000 kilograms for a revenue of 90,000 yuan (RMB).
Following the incident, Wu’s bank account with 900,000 yuan and his real estate properties were frozen.
The addition of borax to food has been previously exposed in the Chinese food industry. According to Daily News Digest under Sina, on March 15, the owner Zheng, who operated a food and beverage shop in Huangpu District, Guangzhou, started purchasing borax online since 2023 to marinate lean pork to improve its taste for increased sales. He then added the pork to dishes such as stir-fries and noodle soups for customers. After the incident in March 2025, Zheng was sentenced to eight months in prison and fined 20,000 yuan.
Public records indicate that borax is a compound of boron minerals and its derivatives. The toxic dose for adult borax poisoning is between 1 to 3 grams, with 15 to 20 grams being fatal. Ingesting 5 grams of borax for children and 2-3 grams for infants can also be fatal.
The release of this news sparked resonance among many netizens, with some expressing that this is just the tip of the iceberg, and many more cases may remain undiscovered. Some netizens believe that this is a result of the inadequate supervision by the Chinese authorities.
A netizen “Q6_Dancing_with_autumn_leaves” commented, “Why are there so many counterfeit products? The cost of crime is low. Whoever produces fake food should have their entire family assets confiscated, spend a lifetime behind bars, let’s see who dares to produce counterfeits.”
Let’s raise awareness and ensure strict enforcement to protect the public from such harmful practices in the food industry.