Chinese woman sold sugar cane drinks diluted with dirty water

SHENZHEN ― An illegal street vendor has been detained in southern China after the costly “all natural” sugar cane juice she was selling was found to be mixed with filthy sugar water, with dead worms floating in it, according to a TV report.

 The woman sold the juice from a cart on her tricycle in Shenzhen in Guangdong province, Shenzhen Television station reported.

She claimed each stick of her sugar cane could produce about five cups of “fresh, all natural” juice. Each cup was sold for eight yuan (US$1.60), considered pricey in the city, according to the report.

However, after urban management officials stopped the vendor for hygiene checks outside a school on March 26, they found a compartment covered by a wooden board under her juicing machine.

Under the board, officials discovered a 20-litre styrofoam box filled with cloudy yellow water mixed with sugar. Several dead worms were floating in the liquid, the report said.

A plastic pipe linked the liquid to the juicing machine so the water would be mixed with the sugar cane juice as it was squeezed.

“This elderly woman has been selling her sugar cane juice in this area for many years,” an urban management official told the news station. “This water is sold to our children to drink.”

Passers-by who crowded round to watch the checks were appalled and people who had just bought sugarcane juice threw it away.

“The water is so dirty … your juice is even less than tap water,” one was quoted as saying. SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST