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BEIJING - The word on the streets of China's cities is that bananas from the southern island of Hainan can cause SARS.
Late last year, Hong Kong government chemists detected in salted duck eggs Sudan II, an industrial dye fed to the birds to make the yolk in their eggs extraordinarily red, a colour consumers see as a sign of high quality.
Introducing standardised practices when it comes to food safety is a major issue in China these days as it poses a serious potential threat to international trade.
The Chinese government has pledged to get to the bottom of the scandal.
Beijing's city authorities announced plans to better monitor food products entering the capital after a raft of food safety scandals.
Some people are now saying that bad food, rather than lobbyists from controversial issues such as Tibetan activists, could be the main risk facing the Olympic Games next year.
Billions of dollars worth of counterfeit and substandard goods, from snack bars to fake liquor and medicines to face creams, are produced every year in China.
Counterfeiting often extends to branded foods and you have to read the labels carefully in shops to make sure that you are getting the right food.
Alcoholic drinks are particularly prone to copying and it is important to check to see if your beer or your breakfast cereal is the real thing, although most big name chains and bars will use properly recognised.
In one of the most highly publicised health scandals, China revealed in2004 that 13 babies had died from malnutrition in the eastern province of Anhui after being fed fake baby milk powder.
The problem is going global, spreading way beyond China's borders.
Chinese-made food products exported abroad are being closely examined for toxins after safety breaches involving poisons in dog food and toothpaste, following reports of tainted products in the Dominican Republic and Panama.
The Dominican Republic authorities said they had removed 10,000 tubes of the Chinese toothpaste brands Excel and Mr Cool from shelves after learning they contained diethylene glycol, a chemical commonly used in antifreeze and brake fluid.
During talks this week between Washington and Beijing, the US said food quality from China was a "top concern" and called on Beijing to improve its safety standards.
The Americans want China to make food regulation more transparent, and to allow US audit teams to travel to China to examine the food factories and farms.
The Chinese government has launched investigations to probe the use of melamine scrap -- the additive that led to at least 16 pet deaths in the United States -- and companies exporting toothpaste containing a lethal chemical.
The company which makes instant noodles under the "Magician" brand had to take out huge newspaper advertisements to publicise the findings of scientific research showing that their products were indeed safe and not made from human body oils.
The manufacturers believe their competitors started the rumour, but everyone is suffering as sales of instant noodles, which are to Chinese cuisine what fish and chips are to British food, are dropping sharply.
A mass outbreak of food poisoning could be extremely damaging for the image of the Olympic Games, which begin in August next year.
Imagine if a team of top athletes came down with Beijing Belly just before a race, when the town is thronged with athletes, journalists and tourists.
To avoid that nightmare scenario, the city is planning to increase rewards for uncovering unlawful production methods from 10,000 yuan ($1,800) to 50,000 yuan, the Beijing News reported.
Beijing city official Wang Weicheng said the city would "set up a supervision system to analyse food additives, and intensify management of the approval system and record-keeping of food additive enterprises."
The main focus of the supervision system would be on food additives, and it would involve setting up a system to trace food and food products to their origins and strictly monitor the use of fertiliser and pesticides.
"Goods from companies that don't meet production standards will be firmly kept out of the market," the report said.
The SARS banana rumour is possibly the most bizarre element to the food-safety scare, as there had never been a case of humans contracting viruses from plants, the Agriculture Ministry said.
"It is purely a rumour and it is impossible for bananas to contain SARS-like viruses," the Agriculture Ministry said, referring to frantic text messages circulating among worried banana fans.
"The spreaders of the false information either have inadequate relevant scientific knowledge or have ulterior motives," the ministry said.
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