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Q: What is the safest food to eat in China?
There is so many different things added to the food in China. I have heard of mercury added to fish to make them shiny and industrial chemicals added to prawns to make them look healthier. Recently they found an underground factory in China that was making ho fun with industrial bleach to make it look white which was used to supply Hong Kong supermarkets and restaurants. What is your advice on what is safest to eat.
Grow vegetables yourself...?... nothing is 100% safe in this world... not only china.. don't you all use pesticides in developed countries?... The rain water is mixed with pollutants from air - earths atmosphere is not clean....
Adventurer:
Point taken with chemicals being in the rain, though they will not be in a concentrated form. As in not the same as being applied direct to the food which would be in a more concentrated form.
Your own piss bear grylls style. Because the only one you can trust is yourself.
Bear Grylls Drinks Piss for the First Time - YouTube
Matt55EL:
People have no sense of humour- I enjoyed that one thanks for the laugh...LOL
Of the answers so far I think I will go with the imported food which is sounding better than the other option. Any other suggestions?
GuilinRaf:
I don't know if this will help, but what I do is take things on faith and educated guesses. I am careful with milk products here. On the other hand, since I do not cook I always eat at the school cafeteria or shops or "Street food". I havent died so far, and my worst experience has been "la duzi" (the runs) but I have also eaten many good things that in the past I would not have even looked at.
Seriously this time. I know there are a lot of shonky things go on with food production in China and as a result eating can pose significant health risks but I have eaten most things, except the real buggy stinky stuff, at restaurants and from street and market vendors and have only been mildly ill on one occasion. I only really have one golden rule and that is to only eat from a place that has a lot of locals eating or buying food.
Can't guarantee anything but my advice would be that if you worry too much about what and where you eat you will miss out on one of the best reasons to be in China in the first place.
Adventurer:
I agree that one of the best things about China is trying the food.
Believe this will be huge challenge in future... so i think there are already companies coming up to certify Food-Fruits- vegetables etc...
eg: http://www.dnvba.com/Global/food-beverage/Pages/default.aspx
But as of now... You have to believe someone!!!.. or die with hunger... where ever you are.. so believe you may go for the reputable brands like Nestle/Heinz etc.. the brands which you know - western origin.... but made in china...
Adventurer:
I hope they will put more effort into monitoring the safety of their food.
I like the little loafs of bread with almonds, my only addiction so far. And after being here 3 months I still haven't had the trotts.
I was eating noodles until I complained to Gf that the bacon wasn't cooked enough, turns out iy was pig ear, and she thought i liked it. Last night I said i wanted cantonese, i miss my home chinese food. One dish she ordered for me was chicken feet, not much on them, give me a wing at least,, geesh..
So if the pigs ear tasted like badly cooked bacon then it mustn't be too bad. I haven't tried that but I have had pig skin which was okay.
I try to stick to imported food, but if I can't find it I will try to buy a western brand if it's from here.
Woody is right, I only go to popular and busy restaurants...even if they are small, it is usually a good sign the food is of good quality.
Eat your own placenta like the folks in guangdong. It's homegrown, 100% organic and won't have any pollutants, pesticides or preservatives and best of all it's free. 
I know it's a nasty one ...My bad.
well, we always talk about how bad the chinese food is and what kind of shit they add, but hey... wasnt there recently an big incident in Italy over milk as well, and I remember something about vegetables and chicken meat around Germany...
the longer i stay in china, the more i miss higher quality food from europe, but actually i think it is just a mistake of my brain, because even back home in good old europe i didnt really like supermarekt goods anymore, they also taste like factory and have added too much nonsense that makes u have cancer in the long run.
sure the standard in the west is still higher, but its not like the west is the paradise and china is the food hell...
