Photo: Screenshot from Sina Weibo

The photo of a cooked animal part suspected to be a mouse head by netizens but confirmed by authorities in Nanchang, East China’s Jiangxi Province as a duck neck has aroused heated discussions on Chinese social media. Education authorities in Jiangxi said on Wednesday that they had launched an investigation into the incident.

A student from Jiangxi Industry Polytechnic College in Nanchang released a video online on June 1,showing a strange item suspected as a “mouse head” found in his meal while dining at the college’s canteen.
 
The video shows that the black cooked food looks like a “mouse skull” with the white “teeth” and long “whiskers” clearly being seen. The video and photos of the food soon drew public attention and aroused heated discussions online.

Jiangxi provincial education authorities told Jimu News on Wednesday that relevant departments are investigating the incident.
 
After the incident, the college responded on its official Sina Weibo account on June 3, saying that the strange item was confirmed as a duck neck by the student and other classmates in the canteen, and the student also wrote an explanation to clarify the content of the video.
 
On the same day, Jiang Xiexue, head of the Changdong branch of the market supervision administration of Gaoxin district in Nanchang, confirmed in a program of the China Jiangxi Radio and TV Station that the local law enforcement officials had arrived at the scene and confirmed the strange item as a duck neck after repeated comparison.

On June 4, CNR news reported that relative officials from the local market watchdog had checked the photos taken by the student and made a preliminary judgment that it was a duck neck. The authorities also conducted an inspection of the school canteen’s dishes with the results to be announced in three to five days after investigation.
 
However, these responses from the multiple departments did not quell the controversy but provoked even more heated discussions online.
 
Many netizens insisted on their speculation that it was a mouse head rather than a duck neck with some questioning that how come the duck neck has teeth and what the long “hairs” were.
 
On June 6, an employee from the Nanchang inspection and testing center confirmed that the “duck neck” was tested at the center. However, the testing result could only be reported to the local market watchdog instead of revealing to the public, according to Shangyou News.
 
An expert researching on rodents for more than 30 years said that if the pictures shown online were true, it is probably the head of a mouse, according to Shangyou News.
 
According to the expert, if the picture was not faked, it shows the white “mouse teeth” in the “mouse head,” whereas a “duck neck” would not have such “teeth.”
 
But the expert also emphasized that it cannot rule out the possibility that the teeth were added to the picture through photoshopping. If the pictures were genuine, the expert believes that there is 80 percent probability that it was a mouse head.
 
According to Dingduan News, although the school canteen is still operating normally, the number of students choosing to dine at the venue had fallen sharply. Many students prefer to order take-outs as their meals in their dormitories.
 
Some students revealed that they were requested to not comment on the incident online, according to Dingduan News.
 
Some media observers pointed out that it is reasonable and understandable that the incident has aroused such controversy since the actions taken by local authorities were unconvincing. Hu Xijin, a commentator for the Global Times, suggested that the relevant authorities should show more convincing evidence to prove it was a “duck neck.”

Others think that the incident indicated a broader food safety issue. When dealing with the public opinions triggered by this incident, the regulatory authorities and the college adopted outdated methods and failed to adapt to public’s high sensitivity to food safety or meet the demands of the public.

According to Jimu News, rats were found in the canteen at another campus of the college in November of 2021. The college posted a statement on its official Sina Weibo account at that time, saying that due to neglected supervision, rats had entered the canteen from an outside area.

Global Times