Workers in Hebei dipped cabbage roots in formalin — the same chemical used to pickle corpses — so the vegetables would look fresh after a cheap, unrefrigerated truck ride.
Local government confirmed it.
This is not new. Same trick was exposed in Shandong in 2012.
Now buyers from other provinces have vanished. Farm-gate price in Kangbao collapsed from ~5,000 yuan per mu to ~1,000. Farmers are selling at a loss.
Neighboring countries stepped up tests.
Singapore and South Korea say batches they checked so far came back clean. That is not the same as “the practice never happened.”
When cold chain costs money and trust is optional, the cheapest preservative wins — until a phone camera shows up.