China makes 'smart chopsticks' to detect toxins in food

Baidu Group has created the "smart chopsticks" , which are believed to be able to detect dangerous health foods.

"Magic wand" detects dirty food

A pair of high-tech chopsticks may sound odd, but China's Baidu search firm recently introduced smart chopsticks that can detect unsafe food.

At the annual technology conference in September, Baidu, Google's Chinese technology company, announced a number of new devices unrelated to its software business, a pair of chopsticks. Smartly named Baidu Kuaisou is equipped with sensors that can detect certain levels of contaminated cooking oil, which is a highly consumed commodity in China.

Chopsticks tail may flash red when the end of the chopsticks folds with toxic oil - DR

It is seen that chopsticks - though slender but filled with electronic sensors - are continuously dipped into many bowls of cooking oil. The sensors analyze the temperature and composition of the oil, and then on a smartphone connected to the chopsticks, show up the collected information. If the cooking oil is toxic to the consumer, then a bipolar lamp mounted in the chopstick will flash red light.

Baidu CEO Robin Li said the chopsticks can detect the purity of cooking oil by measuring indicators such as pH or temperature.

"In the future, through Baidu Kuaisou, you will be able to know the origin of cooking oil, drinking water and other foods - whether they are broken and the types of nutrients contained in it , " Li said.

China is often shaken by scandals called "sewer waste oil" . This means that cooking oil is made from spent oil discharged into sewers and leftovers of restaurants, then sold sneakily at very cheap prices to small food owners and street vendors.

Last year's health agency tried to stop this booming illegal business. About one hundred people were detained and two dozen were detained (including two people who were sentenced to life imprisonment), in a campaign propagated loudly.

On the Chinese social network, this invention was warmly welcomed by netizens, although it was regrettable that it was necessary to resort to such an item. A person who used Micro Uncle sarcastically: "If I bring these chopsticks everywhere, I will eventually starve".

The reality is that dirty food is present everywhere in China. Every day the press also raises scandals about contaminated food , from eggs colored with industrial chemicals, to rancid meat mixed with other materials and changed production dates. Only the milk scandal in 2006 caused the death of six children and another 300,000 sick.