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From 'gutter oil' to glow-in-the-dark pork, Chinese cuisine has been hit by a series of stomach-turning food scandals.

Now one Beijing firm claims it could put a stop to dodgy food practices with its latest gadget: smart chopsticks that detect contamination.

Called Kuaisou in Chinese, the chopsticks were first created as joke by the company, Baidu, in an April Fool's video.

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Called Kuaisou in Chinese, the chopsticks were first created as joke by the company, Baidu, in an April Fool's video. The latest stage of development was revealed this week by Baidu CEO, Robin Li (pictured)

Baidu at the time had 'no serious intention of actually pursuing this', the spokesman told AFP of the stunt it released earlier this year.

'But it generated a lot of excitement both internally and externally.'

The latest stage of development was revealed this week, with a new video released by the company showing a user placing the electronic chopsticks in three different cups of cooking oil.

Sensors in the chopsticks detect the oil's temperature and its suitabilty for consumption, with the findings displayed on a smartphone app.

Sensors detect the oil's temperature and its suitabilty for consumption, with the findings displayed on an app

The chopsticks flash a red light when cooking oil has a higher than 25 per cent level of TPMs, or total polar materials, an indicator of freshness, the spokesman said.

Poor food safety is a major concern in China, with one of the country's worst food scandals seeing the industrial chemical melamine illegally added to dairy products in 2008.

The chemical killing six children and made 300,000 people ill.

'Gutter oil' is a particular concern - cooking oil illegally made by reprocessing waste oil or by dredging up leftovers from restaurants and marketing it as new.

Health authorities last year launched a crackdown on the use and manufacture of such oil, with more than 100 people arrested and 20 imprisoned - two of them for life - as part of the campaign.

In another scandal several years ago, photographs surfaced showing pork that glowed an eerie, iridescent blue when the kitchen lights were turned off.

It is thought that they were contaminated by a phosphorescent bacteria that regulators claims was still safe eat if well-cooked.

Baidu said it was not clear whether the 'smart chopsticks' would go into commercial production.

The company has only made a limited run of prototypes, the spokesman said, and no release date or price has been set.

China's social media users applauded the company's innovation,  but were critical of the need for the device in the first place.

'Is it really a good thing that they invented these?' wrote one user. 'Can we still enjoy our food?'

'If I carried these chopsticks around with me everywhere, I think I'd die of hunger,' wrote another.

Baidu said it was not clear whether the chopsticks would go into commercial production. The company has only made a limited run of prototypes and no price has been set. Pictured is Baidu CEO, Robin Li