Recently, in Korea, a very unique dish called "crispy fried toothpicks" has appeared frequently and has been followed by many creators who specialize in food content. Accordingly, to prepare this strange dish, these people used a box of toothpicks used for oral hygiene in Korea. Next, they fried these toothpicks in a pan of oil until the toothpicks puffed up like shrimp chips.
The toothpicks used in the videos are made from potato starch or cornstarch, and are coated with food coloring to give them a turquoise color. They are considered an environmentally friendly product and are commonly found in restaurants in Korea. Therefore, they are basically made from natural organic ingredients, biodegradable and water soluble.
This type of toothpick is also used in Korean restaurants, or to skewer food instead of using your hands.
In the videos above, content creators often use cheese powder to marinate and drop bundles of toothpicks into the pan of oil, creating a stringy dish with a unique appearance. The toothpick eating videos quickly received a lot of interactions and shares, becoming a popular trend in this country.
Once puffed and removed from the pan, the toothpicks are sprinkled with cheese powder and other spices and enjoyed.
However, despite their seemingly eco-friendly properties, health officials in the Asian country warn against consuming these dental instruments as food as they have not been approved for human use.
The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety has warned that it cannot verify the safety of these fried toothpicks. "Please do not use them, they are not food," the ministry said 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 started with some Mukbang clips, where content creators enjoy various foods and stream them on social media platforms. Then many teenagers caught on to the trend, buying the product and making it at home. Mukbang videos with strange foods have long been extremely popular in Korea. The appearance of fried toothpicks is a typical example of such videos.
In 2018, the South Korean government made efforts to impose regulations on this type of content, aiming to prevent behavior that promotes unhealthy eating habits that are harmful to public health.
