EPT
Edit: apparently the whole story is a hoax: http://www.tian.cc/2007/05/hoax-chinese-counterfeit-eggs.html but still funny
The article says that a guy who worked in a Chinese grocery store has posted a method that they have used to produce fake chicken eggs.
They use a mixture of chemicals (potassium algenate, potash, gelatine, benzoic acid and something else that I don't know the word for) to emulate egg whites. They use the same mixture with food dye and citric acid added to emulate yolk.
They first put the yolk mixture into a solution of calcium carbonate, where it assumes a spherical shape and a thin film surface forms on it. After it dries up a bit, they add the white mixture to it. Then the same process is used to make a complete egg with yolk in the center and white on the outside, held in shape by the thin surface film that the calcium carbonate solution produces.
Then they carefully roll the egg in a mixture of plaster, paraffin and calcium, which becomes a shell when it dries up.
The result is that the fake egg is nearly impossible to tell from the real egg without breaking it. Apparently when broken, it smells funny, and the "yolk" and the "white" quickly intermix because of the same composition.
This guy has also said that while a kilo of real eggs sells for 6-7 yuan, a kilo of fake eggs costs only 0.5 yuan to produce, which allowed them to make a profit of 100 yuan a day selling fake eggs.
