Health officials in South Korea recently urged the public not to eat deep-fried toothpicks after videos of the controversial act began to explode on social media. "This is not an edible product," wrote South Korea's Ministry of Food and Drug Safety.
Despite their seemingly environmentally friendly properties, it is not, as mentioned, a product intended for eating. It is part of a larger trend called "mukbang videos", where gluttonous content people (many of them Asian) record themselves eating excessive amounts of Asian cuisine foods.