After police in Sicily confiscated a batch of century eggs with questionable origins, Italy’s health ministry said the Chinese delicacies were a violation of European Union import laws and called them “unfit for human consumption,” Chinese media outlet Guancha.cn reported Sunday.

A total of 800 eggs — which included the century eggs, or duck eggs preserved in a mixture of clay, ash, salt, quicklime, and rice husks for months until they turn black — were seized in the Sicilian municipality of Misterbianco. In a statement dated April 9, Italy’s Ministry of Health asserted the eggs’ inedibility, saying they were of unknown and illicit origins.

Though century eggs aren’t everyone’s proverbial cup of tea — they were put on display at a Swedish museum of disgusting foods from around the world last year — in this case, they seem to have been confiscated in accordance with standard protocol for handling illicit foodstuffs. Many Chinese netizens, however, have interpreted the Italian authorities’ actions as an affront to a beloved culinary heritage.

“Century eggs are such a delicacy, how could they be ‘unfit for human consumption,’” commented one netizen under a media post about the story. Another wrote simply, “Foreigners are clueless when it comes to food.” (Image: IC)