JAPAN:TV audiences in Japan couldn't get enough of the steam-bun video. Shot secretly in China and screened repeatedly on Japanese networks, the footage showed a street vendor soak and mince corrugated cardboard, stuff it into dough and sell it as a pork-filled bun.
The culinary horror show confirmed Japan's worst prejudices about its huge neighbour as a chaotic, unscrupulous place where you never know what's going into your mouth.
Trouble was that the video was faked and, as a string of recent food scandals proves, there are problems aplenty closer to home. Pork sold as tuna and chicken, old battery-hens packaged as free-range broilers, illegally recycled sweets and dairy products; Japan's reputation as one of the planet's most safety-conscious, hygienic countries has been torpedoed by some of its more venerable firms. And there's no end in sight.
"It's like nothing is safe to eat any more," said housewife Naoko Shimoda, as she shopped for her family in a suburban Tokyo supermarket. "I was always wary of Chinese products but now I feel like I can't trust anybody, especially after Arafuku." A time-honoured maker of confections, Arafuku was investigated after a whistleblower said the firm scraped leftover bean paste and recycled it in rice cakes. The government uncovered a record of deceit, including faking of production and expiry dates going back 30 years. Arafuku has been forced to suspend production for the first time since the second World War.
That scandal rivalled the shock of seeing one of the country's most famous mascots, peko-chan, disappear from outside 800 Fujiya cake shops around the country in January. The rosy-cheeked life-sized doll had been luring children into the shops for decades before Fujiya revealed it had been using inferior milk and eggs. Subsequently, prime minister Shinzo Abe was forced to warn food manufacturers to clean up their act. "After all, this concerns a maker of candy that our children eat," he said.
The warning has gone unheeded. Meat Hope company went bust this summer after admitting it had packaged pork, chicken and rabbit as minced beef, mixing ground cattle hearts into the mix to make it look more convincing. The company, based in Hokkaido - a pristine northern region with a reputation for producing wholesome food - had been supplying the meat to supermarkets and schools since the 1980s.
That revelation sparked a stream of tip-offs to the agriculture ministry, which watches over food safety. Another Hokkaido manufacturer of a much-loved biscuit called "white lover" relabelled expired products and sent them back to the shops. This week, the Mister Donut coffee chain revealed that it had sold drinks beyond the expiry date. The sight of food-company executives bowing in apology on the evening TV news has become an almost weekly ritual.
So far at least nobody has reported being poisoned, but the authorities are reeling from the backlash by angry consumers, who have long been told their more expensive home-grown food is safer than imports. The government has so far declined to impose heavier fines on offenders, believing a policy of name-and-shame works best.
Meanwhile, gourmets wonder what other horrors are on the way. Even raw fish it seems is not safe from the food fakers. TV reporters recently exposed cut-price sushi restaurants for mixing pork lard with fish and selling it as one of Japan's most beloved dishes, chu-toro, or soft tuna.