Mrs. Zhuang was taken aback for a moment, then immediately said, "Of course. My children grew up eating this fruit and vegetable powder from a young age."
Her teammate, "Huihui's Mom", also nodded quickly and said, "As I just mentioned, our baby has always been eating this fruit and vegetable powder too."
"And are they in good health?" Xu Yanxia asked again.
This made Mrs. Zhuang frown. "What do you mean by that, Director Xu?"
Xu Yanxia sneered and spoke to the camera that had hurriedly panned over, "If the dumpling wrappers were really made of pure natural fruit and vegetable powder and flour, there would definitely be a slight discoloration during boiling. This is especially true for dark-colored powders like purple sweet potato powder, where the color loss would be even more obvious."
"This is because the natural pigments in fruit and vegetable powders dissolve easily in water and precipitate when heated, especially since they haven't undergone artificial color-fixing treatments."
"Everyone can take a look at the pot boiling dumplings on their workstation. Is there any sign of color fading in there?"
As soon as she finished speaking, the host quickly led a cameraman over to take a shot, and then answered her, "No, the water is very clear."
While speaking, the host specifically asked for her guidance, "So why is this, Director Xu?"
Xu Yanxia continued, "Because artificial synthetic pigments are water-resistant and high-temperature resistant, and they are usually paired with thickeners and color fixatives. Naturally, they won't fade when boiled."
"Thickeners in particular will swell when heated, which causes the dumpling wrappers to become sticky and soft. They might even develop a gummy texture, and leave a powdery, gritty feeling in the mouth."
As soon as she finished speaking, the judges all started nodding. "Yes, yes, yes, that's exactly the texture! Soft and sticky!"
"When swallowing, the throat feels sticky, as if it can't go down cleanly."
"So this fruit and vegetable powder is made with artificial coloring? Then you might as well just use pure flour wrappers!"
"Can this stuff really be fed to children?"
...
Amidst the discussion, Mrs. Zhuang's face completely fell. She said to Xu Yanxia, "What are you doing, Miss Xu? Even if you have sponsorships and a big boss boyfriend, you don't need to smear other contestants like this, do you? Our products have all passed professional testing and have certificates of conformity!"
"If this continues, I will resort to legal action!"
"Great!"
Xu Yanxia nodded immediately. "I highly support you taking legal action. As a chef with a background in food science, I believe that anything that enters the mouth and directly impacts the human body is extremely important. It must genuinely pass professional testing one hundred percent before it can be consumed by people, especially children."
"The various products you have registered with the Municipal Administration for Market Regulation belong to different batches than the ones you are selling in your storefront. You had better resolve this issue."
At these words, Mrs. Zhuang paused and hurriedly turned to look at her husband off-stage, seeking help.
However, she saw her husband frowning while on the phone, walking out of the studio in a great hurry.
She had no choice but to say to Xu Yanxia, "That might be a mistake by our management personnel. Thank you for the reminder, Miss Xu. I will quickly tell them to improve. In short, everyone does things with a clear conscience. If we did something so unethical, heaven wouldn't tolerate it."
Yet, her momentum had clearly weakened a lot.
Saying this, she also explained to the judges on the scene, "There is definitely no problem with our product. It's just that the water ratio wasn't adjusted properly during preparation just now. Please rest assured."
Since they were still recording the show, no one said anything further, but they all gave low scores during the grading.
As a result, Mrs. Zhuang's team only scored sixty points in the end, barely passing.
But at this point, there was no room for her to pull a long face, because everyone's attention had turned to the dishes of Brother Song's team.
Perhaps due to the addition of professional chef Brother Xiaopang, their output this time was much better than yesterday's. Whether it was the crawfish, chicken feet, bullfrog, or abalone, the flavors were all up to standard. It was just that because different ingredients absorb heat and seasonings differently, there were slight variations in texture and depth of flavor.
But overall, it was still much better than the inferior dumpling wrappers from earlier.
Therefore, they received a total score of eighty-two, second only to Master Jin.
With that, today's recording finally came to an end.
Mrs. Zhuang's face looked terrible. As soon as the host finished the closing remarks, she immediately went off-stage, grabbed her phone from her assistant, and tried to call her husband, who had gone out to take a call and hadn't returned.
Unexpectedly, when she saw the new message on her phone, she froze.
Immediately after, she stormed out of the studio angrily.
Seeing this scene, Xu Yanxia couldn't help but ask Ye Shu, "What's wrong with her?"
Ye Shu chuckled, helping her remove her headset microphone while saying, "Maybe her backyard caught on fire. After all, her husband loves filming other people so much."
Xiaozhen hurriedly asked Xu Yanxia, "Are the things her family sells really unreliable? From what you said, there's a problem with those certificates?"
"Exactly," Xu Yanxia nodded and said. "Yesterday, I tasted the sauce they used and felt something was wrong. Before going to bed, I checked the relevant websites and found that most of the products in their storefront are not from the same batches as their official records. In other words, they are exploiting loopholes to sell inferior goods. Don't buy things from their shop in the future, especially if you have a baby at home."
"Thank goodness," Xiaozhen quickly patted her chest and said. "To be honest, when my baby first started eating solid foods, I really considered buying their products. It was just because I was too lazy, and they were a bit expensive, so I couldn't bear to spend the money. Thank goodness! Otherwise, wouldn't my baby have suffered?"
Saying this, Xiaozhen thanked her on behalf of all the mothers. "Thank goodness you spoke up today, Xiao Xia, otherwise who knows how many babies would have suffered! You should know that their fan base is entirely made up of mothers!"
Indeed.
This was exactly why Xu Yanxia couldn't bear it anymore and spoke up today.
Although she wasn't a mother yet and didn't have children, seeing her cousin-in-law from the Shen family afraid to enjoy good food because of her baby's unexplained eczema...
...and struggling between taking care of the family and her career because she couldn't bear to leave her baby, she simply couldn't tolerate these scammers tricking mothers just to make money.
Most importantly, children's little bodies truly cannot withstand those inferior chemical additives.
This was genuinely unethical and harmful.
Unexpectedly, just as Xiaozhen finished speaking, Ye Shu smiled and said, "Maybe you won't even be able to buy them in the future if you wanted to. Consumers have already reported them, and they were just trending on social media."
"That fast?" Xu Yanxia was somewhat surprised.
She had only just written a report letter to the relevant departments last night after noticing something was wrong. She didn't even know if the letter had been seen yet, so how was it already trending?
Just as she was about to check what was happening with the trending topics, before she could pick up her phone, she saw someone walk up to them and hand over a few cups of milk tea.
"My manager just bought these for me, please have a taste."
Xu Yanxia stared blankly at Brother Song, who was delivering the milk tea.
Ye Shu and Xiaozhen, however, both let out a wow.
"Brother Song is so nice, buying us milk tea?"
"You spent too much!"
Saying that, they each took a cup in their hands.
Ye Shu let out another Wow and said, It is iced? That is so thoughtful!
You have to know that even though it was already October, autumn had not yet arrived in Rong City. The studio was poorly ventilated, and everyone had been cooking inside for most of the day, so the sweltering heat was imaginable.
Having a cup of iced milk tea at a time like this was simply the most comfortable thing in the world.
It is the least I could do.
Brother Song smiled again and said, First, I wanted to apologize for the incident in my fan group last night. Also, the things I brought over last night were not very appropriate.
Saying that, he offered the cup of milk tea that had not been taken yet to Xu Yanxia and asked, You drink this, right?
Uh...
Xu Yanxia paused.
Although she liked milk tea, she did not casually accept drinks given by others.
Just as she was about to politely decline, a voice suddenly rang out from behind her, Thank you for getting my girlfriend a milk tea, but she does not like iced drinks.
This startled everyone. They quickly turned their heads and saw that Lu Jingming had actually arrived.
Ye Shu immediately greeted him as President Lu, and Xiaozhen also nodded at him politely.
Xu Yanxia, looking pleasantly surprised, asked, Why are you here?
Lu Jingming smiled and said, Did I not say I was coming back today? I have been waiting for you for a while.
Is that so?
Xu Yanxia quickly checked her phone and realized it was already past six in the evening.
He had finished his work in Shen City at noon, so factoring in the flight time, he really must have been back for a while.
She hurriedly smiled and said, You must be tired from the trip.
Then she turned back and politely said to Brother Song, Thank you for the milk tea, but I really do not drink iced beverages. You do not need to go to such trouble in the future.
Next, she waved to Xiaozhen and Ye Shu. I will be taking off now.
With that, she took Lu Jingming's hand and happily walked out of the studio.
Once they made it all the way back to her room, she was just about to have a proper chat with him. But before she could even open her mouth, she was pulled into his embrace.
I finally get to hold my baby.
