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Recently in South Korea, a very unique dish called "crispy fried toothpicks" has become widely popular and has been imitated by many food content creators. To prepare this bizarre dish, these people use a box of toothpicks typically used for oral hygiene in Korea. They then deep-fry these toothpicks in oil until they puff up, resembling shrimp crackers.
The toothpicks used in the videos are made from potato starch or cornstarch, coated with food coloring to give them a turquoise color. They are considered environmentally friendly products and are commonly found in restaurants in South Korea. Therefore, these toothpicks are essentially made from natural organic ingredients, are biodegradable, and dissolve in water.
These toothpicks are also used in restaurants in Korea, or to skewer food instead of using your hands.
In these videos, content creators often use cheese powder to coat and drop bundles of toothpicks into a pan of oil, creating a visually striking, string-like dish. These toothpick-eating videos quickly garnered significant engagement and shares, becoming a popular trend in the country.
After being deep-fried until puffed up and removed from the pan, the toothpicks are sprinkled with cheese powder and other seasonings before being enjoyed.
However, despite their seemingly environmentally friendly properties, health officials in this Asian country are warning against consuming these dental instruments as if they were food, as they have not been approved for human use.
Currently, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warns that it cannot yet verify the safety of these fried toothpicks. "Please do not use them, they are not food," the FDA stated in a notice on the X platform (formerly Twitter). The agency emphasized that toothpicks are for oral hygiene and should not be used as food.
The trend of eating fried toothpicks originated from some Mukbang videos, where content creators enjoy various foods and stream them live on social media platforms. Afterward, many teenagers caught on to the trend, buying the product and preparing it themselves at home. Mukbang videos featuring unusual foods have long been extremely popular in South Korea. The emergence of fried toothpicks is a prime example of this type of video.
In 2018, the South Korean government made efforts to impose regulations on this type of content, aiming to prevent the promotion of excessive and unhealthy eating habits that are harmful to public health.
