In restaurants the price can be even higher. Staff from Baoyu Wangzi, a restaurant famed for its shark fin dishes in Xicheng district, said on its menu, 100 grams of its cheapest fins is priced at 500 yuan. A staff member assured their fins were the real deal.
Fake shark fin does more damage to the wallet rather than the human body, as Gao Xin, professor of aquatic products from the Ocean University of China told the Global Times.
"The sharp distinction in prices is the major impulse for people to make and sell fake shark fins. Fake shark fins are usually made with gelatin and algin, which are common and cheap materials. In contrast, every 10-kilograms of fresh fin shrinks to less than one kilogram after peeling the skin off and drying. Not to mention it's getting more and more difficult to fish shark these days," said Gao.
"The contents of real shark fins and fake ones made with gelatin are almost the same, and the textures are also the same. Also they will do no harm to humans if they are made with food standard gelatin and algin," said Gao.
Gu Zhongyi, a clinical nutritionist at Beijing Friendship Hospital backed up Gao's assertion, adding that real shark fins are not nutritious at all.
"The major content of shark fin is collagen, a kind of protein which is not needed by the human body. A bowl of shark fin soup is no more nutritious than an egg," he said.
Gu also added that because sharks are at the top of the ocean's food chain, heavy metals like mercury from other species would inevitably collect in sharks' bodies, including fins.
"In this way, eating fins is just poisoning yourself," he said.
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