I first wrote about fake eggs back in 2010 but offered no helpful advice for shoppers. Well, help is now available. After the authorities in Guangzhou recently seized a batch of eggs suspected of being fakes, this comment was offered by a university professor expert in food science:
According to Zhao Qiangzhong, an associate professor from the school of light industry and foods at South China University of Technology, the eggs Guo bought are likely to be fake, judging by the abnormal size and flexibility of the boiled yolk, which was like a rubber ball. The yolk is smaller than usual and it bounced on the floor three times, he claimed.
Two things to consider there. First, the size of the yolk. I don’t know about you, but that’s rather subjective. Some eggs are larger than others. I don’t think I could make that call accurately.
Second, the elasticity of the yolk. This seems to get us very close to an actual test of whether an egg is genuine or not. And it’s simple. Just boil the egg, separate the yolk from the white, and toss the bastard on the floor. If it bounces, you’ve got yourself a fake. If it hits the ground with a thud and crumbles into a million pieces, you’ll probably want to throw it away. But at least you will have the satisfaction knowing that you purchased the real deal.
I think this represents real progress, don’t you? And let me just say, we really need some good news on the fake egg front, because the news broke today that a nest of fossilized dinosaur eggs, originally smuggled to the U.S. and recently returned to China, might be fake.
Zhao Zikui [another Professor Zhao], leading dinosaur expert at the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, believed the nest was probably faked and then sold outside China.
“And making fake fossil eggs is simple, just using soil and fossilized eggshell fragments.
In 2000, he said he saw farmers selling fossilized eggshell for between 100 and 120 yuan ($16 – 19) a kilogram.
You know, I almost feel sorry for the American collector. I mean, it’s not like he could have bounced these things on the ground to test their authenticity or anything.
On the other hand, Professor Zhao (dino egg Professor Zhao, not to be confused with chicken egg Professor Zhao from the previous story) does have some helpful tips:
“Based on the veins on the eggshells and their shape, the 22 fossil eggs are the kind commonly found in Guangdong, Jiangxi and Hunan provinces,” he said.
OK, veins? That’s kind of icky. No omelettes for this blogger for a while.
Usually, dinosaur eggs are found in a circle with a diameter of no larger than 20 cm, he said. But with the auctioned nest, the circle is much larger.
The fake is too big? Hmm. I discern a trend. Big was bad for the chicken eggs too. The next time I buy a fossilized dinosaur egg nest, I will definitely bring some sort of measurement device.
Moreover, the larger ends of the eggs are normally arranged together, but the position of one egg in the returned nest has been reversed.
That’s a classic mistake. I do that with batteries all the time. We’re obviously dealing with amateurs here.
“In addition, since dinosaurs have two oviducts parallel to each other, they lay two eggs each time, and the eggs on the nest should be arranged in pairs, ” Zhao said, adding that was not the case with this nest.
Well of course. Who ever heard of a dinosaur with a single oviduct? I can say with complete sincerity that I haven’t.
All right, now that you’ve been armed with this information, I better not hear about any of my readers buying fake eggs.
© Stan for China Hearsay, 2012. |
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