I can not find the authorship or publication date, but the date of this blog ("2008-05-12") is the earliest in the web.
The web site (www.sccsbbs.com) itself no longer hosts this news report.
(2) 兰州拉面 in Manhattan. Feb 3, 2011.
http://www.yilubbs.com/HT/con_218_M.1296787729.A.htm
Look, food inspectors of City of New York are unfazed. This is yet another hint--though not scientific proof--why 蓬灰 (whose main ingredient is potassium carbonate 碳酸钾, also reported by New York Times in the preceding link) is harmless, besides the fact advanced by a few Chinese readers here that people in City of Langzhou or Province of Gansu are not sicker or more prone to cancers.
HOWEVER, we are in the twenty first century, not Middle Age.
(a) Potassium carbonate is a weak base 弱鹼.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weak_base
CO3 2- + H2O ----> HCO3- + OH-
(3) My observation is Chinese have lost faith in their society/system, if not their government.
A prominent example is rumors in China--and in China only--that estradiol 雌二醇 (a kind of estrogen) can promote eel to grow fast and fat. See another postingof mine:
Eel. Jan 23, 2011.
http://www.yilubbs.com/HT/con_218_M.1295815663.A.htm
But theoretically it is impossible. (A Chinese university conducted an experiment and debunked the rumor. Still Chinese either did not know of the experiment or they choose not to believe it. In any event, how can anybody believe a--or any--sex hormone can achieve that effect?)
(4) Some people argue that 蓬灰 and 拉面剂 (the subject of the above news report) are not the same. They bark up the wrong tree.
(a) "The major psychoactive chemical compound in cannabis [also known as marijuana] is delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol" which is abbreviated as THC.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabis_(drug)
(b) Lanzhou University acknowledged that 拉面剂, its own industrial product, consists of pure chemicals that work the same as 蓬灰. (From scientific stand point, it is better to work with the known than with the unknown, thus eleminating batch-to-batch variation for example.)
兰州大学力司化工厂 声明. various date in 2008 , such as May 8/June 7 (in this link)/Oct 4.
http://tieba.baidu.com/f?kz=484937521
(c) A plea from Lanzhou University:
兰州拉面和拉面剂. 兰州大学力司化工厂, May 29, 2009 (Google cache).
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Awit7WrDEVEJ:www.landalisi.cn/news.asp%3Fid%3D481+%E6%8B%89%E9%9D%A2%E5%89%82+%E5%85%B0%E5%B7%9E%E5%A4%A7%E5%AD%A6&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&source=www.google.com
("兰州牛肉拉面没有秘密，它是拉面师精湛技艺的发挥和表现，是几百年来世世代代兰州拉面师的不断传承和发展，是中华民族劳动人民智慧的结晶，希望有良知的中国人不要再拿兰州牛肉拉面说事，不要再拿拉面剂说事，不要让已经失去土地的穆斯林兄弟再失去饭碗。在世界快餐业各巨头大举占领中国餐饮市场的时候，兰州牛肉拉面这一中国美食文化的瑰宝，全球最快的中式快餐，不要毁在我们自己手里。")
(5) Maybe due to trade secret, no company has published the chemical composition of 拉面剂--as far as I can tell--not even 兰州大学力司化工厂.
Antonio Zamora, How Can You Make Noodle? Scientific Psychic, 2008.
http://www.scientificpsychic.com/mind/noodles.html
Quote:
"Traditional Chinese noodle recipes used 'Kansui' or alkaline water from wells in the preparation of the dough. Modern formulations use kansui powder, containing sodium and potassium carbonates, dissolved in water. A published commercial recipe for Chinese noodles describes dough made from hard wheat flour with 45% added water and 1% kansui powder consisting of 55% sodium carbonate (Na2CO3), 35% potassium carbonate (K2CO3), and 10% sodium biphosphate dodecahydrate (NaHPO3.12H2O).[1] Japanese ramen noodles are a variation of Chinese-style noodles made with kansui.
Reference 1 is
Abe Yoshiko, Ichikawa Tomoko, Shimomura Michiko, Effects of "Kansui" (Alkaline Solution) on Physical Property of Noodle, Journal of Home Economics of Japan, Vol.57; No.7;461-467 (2006).
But see
(a) Luke Rymarz, How to Make Hand-Pulled Noodle. updated Dec 6, 2008 (I know because it is said so in the web).
http://www.lukerymarz.com/noodles/ingredients.html
(heading of last section: "Lye Water (or baking soda)": "Lye water is supposed to be the secret ingredient in hand pulled noodles. I've tried recipes with it and without it, and it does not make the dough any easier to pull. In fact, if you use too much of it, you'll make the dough IMPOSSIBLE to pull.")
The "lye water" is English for kansui. Both lye water and kansui is written the same in Chinese: 鹼水 (traditional Chiese charaters) or 碱水 (simplified Chinese). Kansui is Cantonese pronunciation for the Mandarin "jian shui."
(b) Florence Lin, Florence Lin's Complete book of Chinese noodles, dumplings and breads. Morrow, 1986.
http://www.ebook3000.com/Florence-Lin-s-Complete-book-of-Chinese-noodles--dumplings-and-breads_91595.html
(baking powder (not soda))
(6) Yet 兰州大学力司化工厂 is not without fault. Or maybe Chinese translation is inprecise and/or done in old days.
But chemically "denatured" is reserved for protein--never for carbohydrate (starch is a complicated carbohydrate, made of entirely glucose, with long chains and branches.)
A protein is denatured when a disulfide bond between two cystein residues is broken.
A carbohydrate has no disulfide bond, because carbohydrate has no cystein (one of amino acids, components of a protein).
The scientific term for 变性淀粉 is "modified starch." Which is bounteous in scientific literature.
Two Wiki pages:
(a) starch
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starch
(section 5.1.2 Modified starches: "The modified starches are E coded according to the International Numbering System for Food Additives (INS)")
(b) modified starch
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modified_starch
("Modified starch, starch derivatives, are prepared by physically, enzymatically, or chemically treating native starch, thereby changing the properties of the starch")