Chinese snack shop offers to transform placentas into health benefit pills for women
Outlet which grinds afterbirth together with ginseng to make ‘health promoting’ capsules subjected to official probe
A Chinese snack shop that advertises “placenta processing” services and sells capsules made from afterbirth, purportedly to boost health, has sparked criticism and an official investigation.
The controversy came to light on April 6 when a netizen shared online that Auntie Congee’s Snack Shop, near the Changzhou Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Jiangsu province, southeastern China, was allegedly processing human placentas and selling them in capsule form.
Images circulated online clearly showing the shop’s signboard boldly stating “placenta processing.”
The business charged 800 yuan (US$110) if the customer did not provide their own placenta and 300 yuan if they did, claiming that “all the placentas used were sourced from new mothers in hospital”.
The shop owner, who previously worked in post-partum recovery services, said that she can connect customers with maternity matrons.
In addition to the snack shop, the owner also runs an online shop called Zixuan Maternity Matron Centre.