Fake Eggs In Japanese Convenience Store Bento – What Are You Really Eating?

I’m sure you’ve heard or seen all the horror stories about how processed meat is made, but when you think about it, would you ever really give up chicken nuggets just because you saw that one gross video of chicken parts being mashed together?

I’ve always heard great things about Japanese convenience stores—so great that people even claim that Genki cannot compare to the sushi at a humble convenience store in Japan. Residents also claim to opt for simple packaged meals because of the price point and their belief that these foods are much healthier than that of restaurants or street food.

However, people were absolutely dumbfounded to find out that the bento sets at these stores contained fake eggs.

What happened caused an uproar on social media platforms like Twitter. Consumers banded together in unison to express their distaste when they found out that their neighbourhood convenience stores used fake eggs with their bento sets.

A Twitter user even tweeted pictures comparing a real and fake egg being heated up to prove that the eggs used at convenience stores were suspect.

The images portray the bento egg on the left melting in comparison to the real egg on the right that hardens upon being heated.

While some people were panicking because they didn’t fully know what they were consuming, others were playing the devil’s advocate, pointing out that real eggs are impossible to keep packaged as you’ll run the risk of salmonella.

This was when people dug deep to find out more about the fake egg, and found that it was actually created by Kewpie, a Japanese mayonnaise company.

According to Kewpie, the faux egg, dubbed the “Petite Egg Yolk”, took more than ten years to create. It was specially made for producers who wanted to incorporate raw eggs into their products but were denied due to health safety concerns. For example, real eggs can explode in the microwave—so it’s safer to use these “fake eggs”.

What do you think about this whole egg debacle? Would you check the eggs in your packaged foods before eating them? Or would this be forgotten like how everyone forgot about how processed food like chicken nuggets are made?