Longkou Fen Si

Longkou Fen Si (龙口粉丝) is a dry starch vermicelli from China with an EU protected geographical indication (PGI). It is a thin, white, translucent thread made from green beans or peas, not from wheat.

The specification describes threads of even thickness, less than 0.7 mm in diameter, soft and elastic, with a pure taste and no impurities visible to the naked eye. Starch content is over 75%, water under 15% and ash under 0.5%. Its most typical property is resistance to boiling: even after an hour in boiling water the threads do not stick together or gelatinise, and after 45 minutes fewer than 10% are broken.

The green beans or peas may come from anywhere, imports included, but must be plump, unbroken seeds grown without fertilisers or chemicals, stored for no more than a year, with under 13.5% moisture. Soaking, separating the starch paste, beating, filtering and drying in the sun or with hot air take place in the production area: Longkou, Zhaoyuan, Penglai, Laiyang and Laizhou in the city of Yantai on the northern Shandong Peninsula. The starch is condensed by Streptococcus lactis in acidic steep-liquor fermentation, and the specification treats the quality of local water as a key factor.

The EU register classes it as pasta (class 2.7), although it is made from starch, not wheat. Dried fen si is packed according to customers' requirements. The label must give the product name, the manufacturer's name and address, the trademark, package specification, production date and shelf life, ingredients and batch number.