--- title: These Smart Chopsticks Could Beat a Chinese Food Safety Scare description: They can detect "gutter oil," or recycled frying oil made from waste oil of a sewage or slaughterhouse. canonical: https://time.com/3265220/baidu-smart-chopsticks/ author: Jack Linshi article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-09-03T22:02:18.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:12:57.435Z og:title: These Smart Chopsticks Could Help You Survive a Chinese Food Safety Scare og:description: They can detect "gutter oil," or recycled frying oil made from waste oil of a sewage or slaughterhouse og:url: https://time.com/3265220/baidu-smart-chopsticks/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: These Smart Chopsticks Could Help You Survive a Chinese Food Safety Scare twitter:description: They can detect "gutter oil," or recycled frying oil made from waste oil of a sewage or slaughterhouse twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # These Smart Chopsticks Could Help You Survive a Chinese Food Safety Scare  by [Jack Linshi](https://time.com/author/jack-linshi/)  ## Jack Linshi Sep 3, 2014 10:02 PM UTC  by [Jack Linshi](https://time.com/author/jack-linshi/)  ## Jack Linshi Sep 3, 2014 10:02 PM UTC [Glow-in-the-dark](http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jun/26/world/la-fg-china-food-20110627) pork, [expired chicken parts](http://time.com/3017349/starbucks-shanghai-husi-food-company-mcdonalds-yum-kfc-pizza-hut-food-safety/), goose feet painted with [inedible pigment](http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2014-08/25/c%5F133582739.htm)—no one wants to know what’s coming next. And Baidu certainly doesn’t, either. The Chinese Internet and tech giant unveiled on Wednesday its “smart chopsticks,” called Kuaisou in Chinese, which can detect contamination levels in oil and water, [according to the Wall Street _Journal_.](http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2014/09/03/is-your-food-safe-baidus-new-smart-chopsticks-can-tell/) Outfitted with high-tech sensors, the utensils link to a smartphone app and can also report nutritional value, according to a promotional video Baidu released earlier this year. The smart chopsticks are designed to combat one of China’s most notorious food scandals: [“gutter oil,”](http://world.time.com/2014/01/08/is-a-suspended-death-sentence-enough-for-a-chinese-gutter-oil-dealer/) or a cheap cooking oil made from the waste oil of slaughterhouses, sewages and fryers that’s used by some street vendors. In the video, a Baidu engineer uses the chopsticks to lift a popular fried Chinese street snack, while a red alert indicates that the food contains traces of the recycled oil. “In the future, via Baidu Kuaisou, you’ll be able to know the origin of oil and water and other foods–whether they’ve gone bad and what sort of nutrition they contain,” [Baidu CEO Robin Li said](http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2014/09/03/is-your-food-safe-baidus-new-smart-chopsticks-can-tell/) in a speech Wednesday. The product is currently not yet available to the general public, Baidu said. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3265220/baidu-smart-chopsticks/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3265220/baidu-smart-chopsticks/"},"headline":"These Smart Chopsticks Could Help You Survive a Chinese Food Safety Scare","datePublished":"2014-09-03T22:02:18.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:12:57.435Z","description":"They can detect \"gutter oil,\" or recycled frying oil made from waste oil of a sewage or slaughterhouse","url":"https://time.com/3265220/baidu-smart-chopsticks/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Gadgets","Innovation","Technology"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jack Linshi","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/jack-linshi/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3265220/baidu-smart-chopsticks/","name":"These Smart Chopsticks Could Help You Survive a Chinese Food Safety Scare"}}]}] ```