Real and Fake

Our purpose is to provide consumers with details and knowledge to understand what they are buying and to tell the differences between a real nest and a fake. As there are more and more fake nests within the market, empowering consumers with knowledge is the best protection for them.

Raw State Identification:

All natural Bird's Nest would be translucent when shone against lights and would have a slight gloss on the surface. As they are formed naturally, they would be of irregular shapes and sizes. Fake nests would be done with usually "pig's skin" or flour and since they are man-made, a mould would be needed to form them into shape. At the same time, these nests would be opaque when shone against lights.

The usual appearance of bird's nest would be ivory coloured and not pure white. White nests would usually be the results of chemical washes or bleaches. There are also coloured nests and the most common are the "Blood Nest", they are dyed with red dyes and upon soaking, they would discolour.

For all nests, they should posess a faint smell in resemblene to "raw egg". The smell would fade over long period of storage, but after cooking, the smell would remerge. For treated nests which are chemically washed, the retailers would try and cover them with herbs. Some claiming it helps to preserve, but actuality is that bird's nest is a dried product, therefore there is no need for such moves.

Soaking Process Identification:

During this process, natural bird's nest would start to swell to approximately twice the size of their original. The water from this process would be transparent and air bubbles would be formed on the surface of the nests due to absorbtion of water into the strands.

Fake nests would either swell a bit or would not swell at all and during the soaking process, the water would either turn murky or if a "Blood Nest" is soaked, the colour would dye the water. Oil residue might be spotted on the water surface if the piece is made from "pig's skin", while lumpy pieces might be the results of edible "white fungus" or flour.

Cooking Process Identification:

Once in the pot for stewing, the nests would not be scattered and would appear as whole pieces. During this, you may smell a light armoatic smell of "raw egg". After fully cooked, the appearance of the nests would be transparent and jelly like. The strands would not be broken easily when you are scooping it out of the pot.

However, "house nests" may only be cooked over a timing of approximately 60 minutes. This is because of lesser impurities as compared to "cave nests".