Chinese vlogger Yulie Qige holds two bamboo shoots allegedly fumigated illegally with sulfur. Photo: Screenshot from Tide News

An initial investigation had confirmed reports of illegal sulfur fumigation of bamboo shoots at local processing sites, authorities in Qingyuan, South China's Guangdong Province, said on Friday. Raw materials and products involved have been seized, and police have taken measures against those involved as the investigation continues.

Qingyuan's market regulation bureau said a statement that it had immediately joined police and agricultural authorities to investigate the sites after the videos surfaced online.

Authorities are urgently tracing where the affected bamboo shoots were distributed and conducting a citywide inspection of procurement, processing and sales. The bureau pledged zero tolerance for violations and thanked the media and the public for their scrutiny and support.

The response followed Chinese vloggers, including Yulie Qige, posted videos on Friday, alleging that fresh bamboo shoots were being transported to remote mountain gullies, fumigated with sulfur in makeshift facilities and then loaded onto trucks, according to Tide News, a Zhejiang-based news outlet. Yulie Qige had previously posted videos about formaldehyde-treated cabbage in North China's Hebei Province.

Several videos alleged that the practice was taking place in Qingyuan's Qingcheng and Qingxin districts. According to the online accounts cited by Tide News, trucks collected fresh shoots from places including Yingde before taking them to sites near Jinxing village in Yuantan township, Qingcheng district, and Xiajing village in Jintan township, Qingxin district, for fumigation.

Footage posted by vloggers showed a rudimentary processing site sheltered only by a canopy, with woven bags and plastic crates scattered around. Although the bamboo shoots undergoing fumigation were tightly covered with tarpaulins, large amounts of white smoke escaped.

"The smell was extremely pungent, and my respiratory tract felt very irritated," the vlogger said in the video, according to Tide News.

At another site, a vlogger filmed workers loading fumigated bamboo shoots onto a vehicle. Several vloggers also obtained a bag of processed shoots, saying it gave off a pungent smell when opened. One claimed that earlier testing had found sulfur dioxide residues of 4,860 milligrams per kilogram. The market regulation bureau's statement did not provide testing results.

On Friday morning, a vlogger told Tide News that he had reported both sites to local authorities and that police and market regulators had arrived.

A staff member at the Yuantan township government told Tide News that township officials, police and environmental authorities were investigating and handling the matter at the scene.

The staff member said authorities had received a tip shortly after 3 pm on Thursday and that environmental officials had already visited the site once.

"What we saw at the scene was a makeshift shed being used as an illegal processing site," the staff member said, adding that the site had been secured and some fumigated bamboo shoots confiscated. The amount seized was not disclosed.

Global Times