00:00:01
there is plastic fumigated tofu that is
00:00:05
quietly feeding and poisoning entire
00:00:09
cities and I'm not being sensationalist
00:00:11
because in this video I'm going to prove
00:00:13
it to you we're visiting the global
00:00:15
epicenter of toxic tofu Suraya and here
00:00:20
we'll see village after village that
00:00:23
have giant industries producing
00:00:26
industrial quantities of toxified tofu
00:00:29
spoiler alert it involves burning a lot
00:00:32
of plastic and we're going to be
00:00:35
following it from just the raw curd
00:00:37
through to the final crispy fried blocks
00:00:40
straight off the heat it's really good
00:00:42
and taking a look into the science that
00:00:44
has been done in these areas and see why
00:00:47
this is very likely to be a real real
00:00:50
bad idea with some pretty serious
00:00:52
consequences
00:00:54
and then finally we'll do what we
00:00:56
probably shouldn't and take a bite of
00:00:58
this stuff like millions do here on the
00:01:00
side of the streets and see just why
00:01:03
despite knowing exactly where this comes
00:01:05
from that people ignore it and why it's
00:01:09
very very unlikely to change let's
00:01:12
roll indonesia eats a lot of tofu but
00:01:17
especially here in the east of Java in
00:01:20
Suraya and the surrounding area it is
00:01:23
Indonesia's second largest city and you
00:01:26
will find it everywhere fried grilled in
00:01:29
soups in snacks it is a staple and the
00:01:33
supply chain starts in these tofu
00:01:36
villages that surround the city's
00:01:39
fringes you sort of see smoke stacks as
00:01:42
you walk through the village just these
00:01:44
huge plumes of black smoke rising out of
00:01:48
chimneys across the villages thick
00:01:51
greasy smoke it swirls in the heat and
00:01:54
it looks like the village is full of
00:01:57
tiny coal plantations not food factories
00:02:00
guys these factories behind me are
00:02:02
making one of the most eaten foods here
00:02:04
in Indonesia
00:02:07
tofu here's the core issue making tofu
00:02:11
at this scale requires a lot of heat
00:02:14
massive boilers running nonstop huge
00:02:18
walks to deep fry the product and to
00:02:21
keep the costs down they rely on
00:02:24
whatever is cheapest
00:02:27
what is this this is coconut or no
00:02:31
that's the trash as well the trash
00:02:40
local plastic
00:02:43
here in and around Suraya actually they
00:02:46
have a relatively efficient plastic
00:02:48
industry like it is used for everything
00:02:50
and anything that does have a purpose
00:02:52
other than burning will likely be used
00:02:53
for that purpose uh and as I've heard
00:02:57
from the owner they use a mix here of
00:03:00
wood
00:03:02
coconut which you maybe see on top of
00:03:03
the burner but the most reliable and
00:03:06
consistent fuel is plastic
00:03:10
waste they feed these boilers and these
00:03:13
deep fryers with it all day long one
00:03:17
thing that is kind of nuts to me is just
00:03:18
like the amount of fuel that is required
00:03:21
to keep this tofu factory going that
00:03:24
boiler I mean it really is just like an
00:03:26
old school steam frame like the thing is
00:03:28
absolutely massive has two guys just
00:03:31
rotating fulltime loading up these
00:03:33
coconut husks and bags of plastic and it
00:03:37
rolls all day long and this entire
00:03:40
village is filled with them there are 56
00:03:42
factories I believe they said that are
00:03:44
just filled
00:03:46
with trash
00:03:48
burners absolutely wild and look I don't
00:03:51
love to take arguments on the climate
00:03:54
change side of things i do think it's a
00:03:56
little bit of a cult at this point but
00:03:58
let me tell you going for those those
00:04:01
plastic straws I don't think it's going
00:04:03
to make a difference guys i really
00:04:05
don't all these factories run in a
00:04:08
pretty similar manner at their core is a
00:04:11
giant boiler that boiler feeds steam
00:04:14
through metal pipes across the entire
00:04:16
space and it connects to each individual
00:04:19
workstation the steam the boiler ends
00:04:22
back there and you have this one line
00:04:24
that runs the entire length of the
00:04:26
factory so this factory seems to be set
00:04:28
up very differently from any other tofu
00:04:30
factory I have seen before it's sort of
00:04:32
like each person is running their own
00:04:34
individual station and they are going to
00:04:35
do 90% of the steps to take the bean
00:04:39
curd juice somebody correct me in the
00:04:41
comments through to the complete white
00:04:44
tofu
00:04:46
these workstations consist of three
00:04:48
concrete
00:04:51
bats the first one is like a pure boiler
00:04:55
this is where all of the tofu is going
00:04:57
to get loaded and steamed up they have a
00:04:59
fresh water tub right next to it and
00:05:02
then a third one which is where they're
00:05:04
going to do most of the kind of
00:05:05
coagulation and draining let's see each
00:05:08
step broken down first the soybeans are
00:05:11
soaked and then ground into a thick
00:05:13
paste the paste gets dumped into a
00:05:17
boiling bat and brought to a rapid
00:05:19
simmer by that live steam pipe they're
00:05:21
basically giant steam wands frothing up
00:05:24
industrialsized lattes honestly I can
00:05:27
see why all these guys are shirtless it
00:05:29
is absolutely cooking in here just to
00:05:31
heat the steam under this sort of
00:05:35
asbestos roofing and
00:05:38
man I wish I could rip my shirt off
00:05:40
right now as well this is wild
00:05:45
once it's boiled they either scoop the
00:05:47
milk or just straight pump it through
00:05:49
one of these cheesecloth hammocks that
00:05:51
are hanging above the curdling bat
00:05:54
workers then swirl it around in this
00:05:57
circular motion forcing the thinner
00:05:59
liquid through the cloth while the solid
00:06:01
stuff stays trapped eventually they ring
00:06:03
it tight twisting it like laundry what
00:06:06
he has bled up right there that's waste
00:06:10
and they're left with this puck of
00:06:12
soybean pulp that remaining solids from
00:06:15
the tofu is often turned into a kind of
00:06:17
tempeh but also apparently it's just
00:06:19
kind of given to animals so it's sort of
00:06:21
a waste product yes this is for human
00:06:23
and then this is for the co and then the
00:06:26
what oh pig too pig yes but back to the
00:06:30
tofu so in these blue drums in between
00:06:33
these sort of stations is the coagulant
00:06:35
we're going to pump a certain amount of
00:06:37
that in with the the sort of strained
00:06:40
tofu liquid and now we wait the strained
00:06:43
milk gets coagulant added it's scooped
00:06:46
from these large blue barrels that are
00:06:48
placed next to each of the stations you
00:06:51
should now be able to see once the tofu
00:06:53
has really started coagulating they're
00:06:54
able to just skim off any of the froth
00:06:56
that's remaining on top and you really
00:06:57
see quite quickly the separation of the
00:07:00
tofu and just the water that's remaining
00:07:02
within the coagulation drum so this tofu
00:07:05
is already starting to really separate
00:07:07
you can sort of see a watery surface on
00:07:09
there and underneath it is the sort of
00:07:11
solidifying tofu they remove as much
00:07:14
water as possible and then the curdled
00:07:16
tofu mixture is poured into these
00:07:19
presses that are lined with cheesecloth
00:07:21
they wrap it up stack them and they do
00:07:24
this over and over until they have a
00:07:26
batch of around nine molds the weight
00:07:29
from each of these presses forces out
00:07:31
the liquid which just gushes across
00:07:33
these piled channels on the fork you can
00:07:36
sort of see the rotating nature of this
00:07:38
production this guy is scooping out the
00:07:40
coagulated tofu into the presses and at
00:07:43
the same time he's already preparing his
00:07:45
next batch for boil so again they really
00:07:47
do just there's no waste of time here
00:07:49
it's not like they finish one batch
00:07:50
completely and then start the next one
00:07:51
up as soon as one of the vats is free
00:07:53
it's getting utilized right away for the
00:07:55
next batch
00:07:57
one batch after the other endlessly and
00:08:01
the working conditions here are I mean
00:08:04
they're intense the floor is soaked and
00:08:06
slippery there is steam everywhere the
00:08:09
sun just beats through the busted
00:08:11
asbestos roofing and the air is this
00:08:14
humid mix of soy sweat cigarette and
00:08:18
plastic smoke it is remarkable how much
00:08:20
these places remind me of Dobby Gats the
00:08:22
laundry slum in Mumbai i don't know what
00:08:24
it is i think it's like the steam the
00:08:26
heat the wetness all this moisture
00:08:28
everywhere just that same kind of vibe
00:08:31
once the tofu is fully pressed it's cut
00:08:34
using barbecue grates as a template and
00:08:37
from there it's either dumped into these
00:08:38
brine tanks and sent off to the market
00:08:41
where it can be sold fresh or it's
00:08:43
headed to the fryers and these deep
00:08:46
fryers are where things get even more
00:08:49
intense i've kind of become numb to it
00:08:51
you just have this yet another giant
00:08:54
workshop here we have all of the tofu
00:08:56
makers cranking along with their
00:08:58
stations we have two giant trash boilers
00:09:01
here and then behind me the sort of
00:09:04
final step the deep fryers in each
00:09:07
factory there's a whole section devoted
00:09:10
to the fry rows of oversized walks
00:09:14
bubbling away with oil the air is just
00:09:17
thick with smoke there's no fuel here no
00:09:20
wood it's not gas it is heaps of burning
00:09:24
plastic right there fed directly to the
00:09:28
flame let me tell you guys like you
00:09:31
instantly know you are in one of these
00:09:32
villages like there's no hiding it it's
00:09:35
got that that tinge you know that
00:09:37
horrible smell when you start burning
00:09:38
plastic but just in your gut you know
00:09:40
it's wrong something's going on you
00:09:42
ain't supposed to be breathing this air
00:09:44
that is the smell of these entire
00:09:47
villages the air is just thick with this
00:09:50
black smoke and the smell of burning
00:09:52
plastic is everywhere and it mixes with
00:09:56
the grease and the frying oil and it
00:09:58
kind of just sticks to your skin and
00:10:00
still weirdly enough I can kind of
00:10:03
understand how these locals get used to
00:10:05
it after 30 minutes or so it just sort
00:10:08
of fades into the background
00:10:11
but the truth is is that this stuff is
00:10:14
not harmless a 2019 study looked into
00:10:18
the effects of plastic fuel on
00:10:19
Indonesia's food supply chain and it
00:10:21
focused on eggs laid by freerange
00:10:24
chickens living near tofu factories and
00:10:27
the results were kind of insane these
00:10:30
eggs had the second highest dioxin
00:10:33
levels ever recorded in Asia they were
00:10:36
second only to postwar Vietnam where the
00:10:39
soil had been poisoned by the famous
00:10:42
agent orange what they said was
00:10:44
insecticide to kill the mosquitoes here
00:10:47
and um so that people wouldn't get
00:10:49
malari but it turned out to be agent
00:10:52
orange a dioxins that same one that
00:10:54
caused all those birth defects and
00:10:56
cancers and just generational trauma
00:10:59
across Vietnam that still affects the
00:11:02
country today
00:11:05
studies have linked exposure to dioxins
00:11:07
with all kinds of health issues cancers
00:11:11
heart disease diabetes messed up
00:11:13
hormones it is a long and really ugly
00:11:16
list let's put this in perspective again
00:11:19
eating just one egg from these areas
00:11:21
would expose an adult to 70 times the
00:11:24
European Food Safety Authorities's
00:11:26
tolerable daily intake for dioxins and
00:11:30
it doesn't stop there the eggs are
00:11:32
filled with other plastic derived
00:11:33
chemicals SECPs PBDE FPOS's i don't even
00:11:38
know what any of that stuff means but
00:11:40
what I do know is I don't want it in my
00:11:43
food you know I'm not going to lie i do
00:11:45
find there to be like at least a little
00:11:47
bit of a contradiction in terms like
00:11:49
these guys they will not use Argentinian
00:11:53
Vietnamese or even Indonesian soybeans
00:11:56
because of the lack of quality but uh no
00:11:59
one's really afraid of the the copious
00:12:01
amounts of plastic that's getting into
00:12:02
their
00:12:04
foods i don't know humans have weird
00:12:06
norms as with the tofu making process
00:12:10
there's one person for each station the
00:12:12
deep frying is done by the women the
00:12:14
tofu arrives in those brine buckets
00:12:17
ready to be fried and in the corner of
00:12:20
every room is just a mountain of
00:12:22
trash this is of course the fuel it's
00:12:25
off cuts from the factories unrecyclable
00:12:28
plastics wrappers packaging and it all
00:12:30
gets scooped up by hand and fed into the
00:12:33
burning fire beneath the oil the tofu is
00:12:36
then dropped in handful by handful until
00:12:38
it becomes just this golden
00:12:42
brown eventually it's scooped out with a
00:12:44
strainer that is universally made of the
00:12:47
front half of a standing
00:12:49
fan guys this is why children in Asia
00:12:52
have no fingers every front of a fan is
00:12:55
always used for some kind of innovative
00:12:57
thing usually I see them as grills but
00:13:00
uh tofu scoop i love it and it's laid
00:13:02
out to cool sorted by size bagged and
00:13:07
that's pretty much it thank you thank
00:13:09
you all right and honestly I thought
00:13:12
that the tofu making was the rough part
00:13:15
but this is even more unbearable the
00:13:18
heat next to each of these deep frying
00:13:20
burners just hits you like a punch and
00:13:22
the whole room reeks of melted plastic
00:13:26
it is humid as hell and these women
00:13:29
they're grinding that is hard hard work
00:13:32
okay I'm getting told I should try one
00:13:34
of these and so this is like this big I
00:13:38
don't know square piece of tofu maybe
00:13:40
it's a little bit different from these
00:13:41
sort of longer pieces
00:13:45
it's less warm it has almost like a a
00:13:48
donut- like texture i think we're really
00:13:51
getting in the way
00:13:53
here it's just really good it has kind
00:13:55
of like this crunchy outside that almost
00:13:59
rubbery like skin and then this fluffy
00:14:02
interior again I don't know why there's
00:14:04
so many tofu haters out there to me that
00:14:06
is every bit as good as like a fried
00:14:08
doughut but with a lot more protein
00:14:10
packed within it you don't get any of
00:14:12
the kind of more dodgy smells from this
00:14:14
area i think anybody would like that i'm
00:14:17
interested in seeing how they really
00:14:18
prepare from here because I think this
00:14:20
is the base of like a pretty tremendous
00:14:22
Indonesian
00:14:25
dish and incredibly from everything that
00:14:28
I've found no one's ever really tested
00:14:30
the tofu itself which is just kind of
00:14:33
wild to me i mean I'm not an expert guys
00:14:36
i'm eating too much of this at this
00:14:38
point but I'm telling you at least here
00:14:42
maybe I'm just used to the smell
00:14:44
up straight off the heat it's really
00:14:47
good but if tofu is being deep fried
00:14:51
directly over open plastic flames with
00:14:54
no filtration that feels like a pretty
00:14:57
direct route for contamination more so
00:15:00
than just some chicken to be walking
00:15:02
around nearby and the scale of it to me
00:15:06
is also what's most shocking in just 2
00:15:09
days I visited maybe 30 tofu factories
00:15:13
and whilst some did use wood for the
00:15:15
initial boilers mister no plastic no no
00:15:18
no that was a rarity and every single
00:15:22
one deep fried their tofu over burnt
00:15:25
plastic flames just open fires pumping
00:15:28
out black smoke right into the workspace
00:15:31
and into the tofu and I think it's
00:15:34
pretty safe to assume that this is how
00:15:36
all tofu and deep fried tofu is being
00:15:40
made in and around the surayan area i've
00:15:43
got to admit like you can't taste the
00:15:44
plastic until you get out of the factory
00:15:46
it's so weird you know what I mean like
00:15:48
there's so much of it in there that it's
00:15:50
just like takes over your sense of smell
00:15:53
and it's the second biggest city in
00:15:55
Indonesia it's home to more than 3
00:15:58
million people in the city itself and
00:16:00
more than 10 in the surrounding area
00:16:02
it's not just some fringe operation it's
00:16:05
feeding a massive population with one of
00:16:08
its staple foods i'm not saying that
00:16:11
we're looking at another Agent Orange
00:16:13
situation here they've been cooking and
00:16:15
eating this stuff this way for a good 20
00:16:17
years by now and I think that some of
00:16:19
the more shocking health effects would
00:16:21
have come to light they're all coming
00:16:23
from villages like we shot today yes so
00:16:26
uh maybe not only that village but there
00:16:28
is several village near Java there's
00:16:31
some village that produce tofu so I mean
00:16:34
the problem obviously is like the
00:16:36
plastic do you think anybody here cares
00:16:37
about the plastic in this no one care we
00:16:40
just eat this because uh we never uh are
00:16:43
just thinking that nobody see how the
00:16:46
their food come from they do not see how
00:16:49
they produce it so they don't care but
00:16:52
do you think they would care if they did
00:16:53
know if they did see it maybe maybe but
00:16:57
maybe but just maybe just a little
00:16:59
person because
00:17:01
uh I just thinking that if they replace
00:17:04
the tofu using the fuel using other
00:17:07
things the price of tofu become more
00:17:10
expensive and then I just thinking
00:17:13
people prefer to buy something that is
00:17:15
cheaper so maybe Yeah right but what
00:17:18
about you do you care i mean you saw it
00:17:21
being made today i think because I'm not
00:17:24
eating this tofu every day so it's okay
00:17:27
for me just once and then I'm not dying
00:17:29
because of that right right yeah i mean
00:17:31
me too i suppose it's weird like you see
00:17:33
it today you smell it but when it comes
00:17:35
to a dish like this it's just covered in
00:17:37
other places cuz I don't care you stop
00:17:39
worrying right
00:17:41
but I do think that it's likely there is
00:17:44
something far more insidious underneath
00:17:46
the surface here and I think that
00:17:48
somebody needs to start paying attention
00:17:50
because if this tofu is even half as
00:17:53
contaminated as those eggs then there's
00:17:56
a problem that's a lot bigger than just
00:17:58
one village what do you think about the
00:18:01
pollution do you think it's a a serious
00:18:04
problem or not a problem
00:18:08
sure yeah yeah we sure that that's a
00:18:10
serious problem that there there there
00:18:12
will be a a serious health impact
00:18:14
because you know like this region this
00:18:18
city this city was named as the most
00:18:22
pollution city in Indonesia the most
00:18:24
polluted city in Indonesia city in
00:18:26
Indonesia wow oddly after being there I
00:18:29
actually kind of get where these tofu
00:18:31
makers are coming from a lot of these
00:18:34
guys want to stop using plastic
00:18:38
but there's zero demand from consumers
00:18:40
in Suraya for a cleaner product and from
00:18:44
the producers side there is a lot of
00:18:46
different between the plastic and the
00:18:48
coconut like the plastic they can came
00:18:50
can came can every day frequently like
00:18:54
you know we just celebrate
00:18:56
our Yeah yeah at our at Ramadan Ramadan
00:19:00
and the the price of coconut just become
00:19:03
high in price very very high what about
00:19:06
wood is wood how much is wood compared
00:19:08
to plastic wood is the same thing as
00:19:12
coconut they just can they they just
00:19:14
cannot came frequently because of like
00:19:17
you know the stock of the wood it's not
00:19:20
as much as plastic as much as plastic
00:19:22
it's it's just not as uh reliable even
00:19:26
so So even if you guys had better
00:19:29
boilers or more efficient boilers it
00:19:31
might still be a problem because you
00:19:32
might not get the supply frequently
00:19:34
enough yeah because like you know we use
00:19:37
plastic every day and we consume it
00:19:41
like a whole day and the next day we
00:19:45
need that again and if we don't use that
00:19:50
we what we what we will do like you know
00:19:54
Yeah we kind of just make wood like they
00:19:58
just can every day or something like
00:20:00
that and so the system kind of traps
00:20:03
them change means risk and no one wants
00:20:07
to be first we don't have any solutions
00:20:11
we don't have any solution we can't we
00:20:12
can't do nothing right we can't do
00:20:14
nothing because of that the government
00:20:16
just gave us the warning but they they
00:20:19
don't give us a solutions and they don't
00:20:21
have any regulations
00:20:23
to you know make everything clear it's
00:20:27
not just about the price it's not that
00:20:29
these guys love burning trash it's that
00:20:32
right now that's the only way they can
00:20:34
stay alive it doesn't seem like an
00:20:37
unfixable problem to me some of the
00:20:39
factories that use dedicated wood
00:20:41
burners told me that they are actually
00:20:43
more efficient than plastic burners they
00:20:46
just require more capital upfront to
00:20:48
construct loans could help here so it's
00:20:51
interesting guys there is that one
00:20:52
factory that uses wood i've got to admit
00:20:55
by comparison like pretty professional a
00:20:57
lot was just telling me that they were
00:20:59
saying like they have the far more
00:21:00
efficient sort of maybe slightly more
00:21:02
modern boilers and therefore like it's
00:21:05
actually more cost efficient for them to
00:21:07
use wood just more of a capital outlay
00:21:09
up front and you can see it right away
00:21:11
like their smoke stack it just has
00:21:15
absolutely no smoke no black bellowing
00:21:19
clouds above it and while I'm not a huge
00:21:21
fan of subsidies I'm less of a fan of
00:21:23
just poisoning giant populations of
00:21:25
people so if alternative fuels are just
00:21:28
simply not cheap enough then surely
00:21:31
there's a way to subsidize a fuel for
00:21:33
these deep fryers like gas i'm just
00:21:35
spitballing here but these guys they
00:21:38
want to change they just don't know what
00:21:40
to do and if you ask me change it's kind
00:21:44
of
00:21:45
necessary all right guys one more of
00:21:48
these crazy sort of fish shrimp pasted
00:21:51
tofus i'm telling you a lot easier than
00:21:53
wum mam if you're Vietnamese the stuff
00:21:56
goes down a little bit
00:21:57
easier but that secret ingredient that
00:22:01
plastic I'm telling you you just
00:22:02
straight forget about
00:22:04
it this is really good that's That's
00:22:07
quality tofu suraya keep doing your
00:22:13
thing maybe the best toxic tofu on earth
