Chinese Man Tricked Into Buying Hollow, Hormone Injected Strawberries

An expert thinks that the seller used ripening agents to allow a winter harvest.
Chinese Man Tricked Into Buying Hollow, Hormone Injected Strawberries
Farmers sell their strawberries from carts pushed along a Beijing street on Feb. 2, 2010. Frederic J. Brown/AFP/Getty Images
Frank Fang
Updated:

When shopping for fruits in the winter, buyer beware.

Recently, a Mr. Wang from Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province in south China, was journeying home from a family trip to the historic town of Huanglongxi when he approached a street vendor selling strawberries.

The strawberries Mr. Wang sampled were very tasty, so he decided to make a purchase. He didn’t suspect anything when the vendor stopped him from choosing the strawberries himself, telling him that the fruit was quite fragile.

“I thought the fruit seller made a reasonable request. So I let him pick the strawberries for me,” Mr. Wang told Tianfu Morning Post on Mar. 11.

Upon trying the strawberries at home, the Wang family found that “they were all rather hollow inside and not very tasty.” Upon closer examination, Mr. Wang realized that the insides of each strawberry bore a needle scar.

Strawberries. (Tianfu Morning Post)
Strawberries. Tianfu Morning Post
Frank Fang
Frank Fang
journalist
Frank Fang is a Taiwan-based journalist. He covers U.S., China, and Taiwan news. He holds a master's degree in materials science from Tsinghua University in Taiwan.
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