TOXIC BUNS, GUTTER OIL, POISONED GYOZA AND OTHER TAINTED FOOD IN CHINA

TAINTED AND POISONED FOODS IN CHINA

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Food safety and environmental pollution are serious problems in China and rumors and public fears over cases of fake or toxic food can spread quickly. Food safety scandals have included reports of glow-in-the-dark pork, exploding watermelons, cadmium-laced rice, fake eggs, salmonella-tainted seafood, carcinogenic recycled cooking oil and pesticide-soaked fruit.

Keith B. Richburg wrote in the Washington Post, “Bodybuilder pigs given illegal growth hormones in their feed. Harmful additives to make pork taste like beef. Outdated steamed buns painted with coloring to look new. Formaldehyde in a popular Sichuan dish. Exploding watermelons that had been treated with plant growth chemicals.” [Source: Keith B. Richburg, Washington Post, August 10, 2011]

Barbara Demick wrote in the Los Angeles Times, “To eat, drink and be merry in China is done at a risk: Weddings increasingly end with trips to the emergency room. During the May Day holiday weekend, 192 people from two weddings elsewhere in Hunan fell so ill they had to be hospitalized....If anything, China's food scandals are becoming increasingly frequent and bizarre. In May, a Shanghai woman who had left uncooked pork on her kitchen table woke up in the middle of the night and noticed that the meat was emitting a blue light, like something out of a science fiction movie. Experts pointed to phosphorescent bacteria, blamed for another case of glow-in-the-dark pork last year. Farmers in eastern Jiangsu province complained to state media last month that their watermelons had exploded "like landmines" after they mistakenly applied too much growth hormone in hopes of increasing their size.” [Source: Barbara Demick, Los Angeles Times, June 26, 2011]

In a single week in March 2011, state newspapers have reported that regulators found “unsafe artificial green peas” in Hunan Province and some 20,000 pounds of “toxic vegetables” in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Those vegetables had excessive pesticide residues, according to a government Web site.In the case of the green peas, two illegal food workshops were caught processing dried snow peas and soybeans with chemicals and bleach to produce the appearance of more expensive green peas.

Websites and Sources: China Food Safety.com chinafoodsafety.com ; Wikipedia article Wikipedia ; China Digital Times list of articles chinadigitaltimes.net ;

Severe Food Problems in China

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frozen meatballs

There have been nightmare tales in China of soy sauce laced with arsenic-tainted human hair; hormone-filled snack food that caused facial hair to grow on six-year-old boys and breast to develop on seven-year-old girls; and dangerous drugs given to pigs to make their meat look better. In Shandong people have died from eating leeks coated with pesticides.

In 2001, a company that made drinks and vitamins for pregnant women was found to have used fake ingredients. In 2003, twelve children died and hundreds of others suffered brain damage or became of malnourished when they were given counterfeit baby formula that had no nutritional value.

In December 2006, a factory manager was arrested for using used grease from swill, sewage and recycled industrial oil to make edible lard. A “toxic pesticide” was also detected in the lard. In the summer of 2006, 87 people became seriously ill after eating undercooked snails at a Beijing restaurant.

In January 2007, nearly 300 employees of the BYD Co, a Shanghai automaker, were hospitalized after eating undercooked kidney beans. In March 2007, more than 400 people in Yunnan Province’s Lincang County were hospitalized with food poisoning they came down with at a wedding banquet.

In November 2007, six people were killed, including two children, after eating soup for lunch in the central province of Hubei. Two more were made seriously ill. The victims suffered severe cramps and vomited and collapsed after eating the soup at a scrap collection center. According to the Shanghai Daily, the cook who made the soup, who was among the dead, “found the rice dough he was preparing for making tangyuan [rice dumplings] was too watery and he decided to add more rice flour. Unfortunately, he mistook rat poison that had been placed together with other condiments as flour and mixed it with the dough.”

Gyoza Scare in Japan

In December 2008 and January 2008, 10 people in three families in two areas — Chiba and Hyogo prefectures — became seriously ill after eaten gyoza frozen dumplings produced in China that were contaminated with the pesticide methaminophus, a highly toxic organic phosphate pesticide. One of the victims — a five-year-old girl went into a coma.

The 10 people that were sickened were a mother and daughter in Chiba city who ate the gyoza in late December; five members of a family in Ichikawa in Chiba Prefecture who consumed the gyoza in January; and three members of a family in Takasago, Hyogo Prefecture, including the five-year-old girl, who ate their gyoza in January. The quantity of methaminophus in the Hyogo gyoza was 44,000 times what was considered safe.

One of the Chiba city victims said she became dizzy, felt nauseous and had diarrhea about 20 minutes after eating the gyoza. Her husband called an ambulance. By the time she arrived at the hospital she was numb with cold and her temperature dropped to 34 degrees C. For two days she was unable to move and was unable to eat for longer than that. Her husband said he “felt her life was in danger.”

The five-year-old girl who went into the coma and the other four members of her family were all hospitalized after eating tainted gyoza. The girl was unconscious for three days and suffered cramps in her face and hands, was constantly salivating and had tears streaming from her eyes. At one point her temperature topped 40 degrees C. She was on a respirator for over a weeks and was hospitalized for almost a month. She suffered more than other family members because she ate more gyoza to her body weight than other members of her family.

During the gyoza scare 2,745 people called health officials complaining of problems and 884 people sought the help of doctors but these people either suffered from a kind of hysteria or mistakenly attributed symptoms from some other ailment to food poisoning. Investigations also revealed the presence of another pesticide, Dichkorvus, widely used in China to kill mosquitos and other insect pests and sometimes use to give bootleg liquor a “punchy flavor.” There were no reports of problems related to Dichkorvus.

Gyoza Scare Investigation in China

The dumplings in question’tezukuri Gyoza (handmade gyoza dumplings) and Tezukusamui Hitokuchi (handmade bite-size gyoza dumplings) “were produced by Tianyang Food in Hebei Province in China during early October 2007 and sold by JT Foods at Coop grocery stores in November in Hyogo and Chiba prefectures in Japan. Chinese officials said that the “no problems were detected at gyoza factory” and said it passed 24 quality checks since February 2007.

A lot questions were raised about where the poisoning took place. Japanese investigators insisted that the evidence indicated that the dumplings were most likely contaminated in China. One Chinese official suggested that the gyoza may have been contaminated deliberately in Japan to create friction between China and Japan or damage business for Chinese exporters. A tiny hole was found in the bag of gyoza that sickened three members of a family in Hyogo. The bags that sickened to family in Chiba contained no holes,

The gyoza was boxed soon after production and remained in these boxes while it was shipped to Japan. Gyoza earmarked for export was inspected at the factory rather than at a customs inspection station. The gyoza remained on sale one month after the first poisoning which raised question about why it wasn’t taken off the shelves earlier.

Stores that sold gyoza — especially that produced at the Tuangyang factory — pulled their products from the shelves. Restaurants and schools avoid Chinese products out of safety concerns after he gyoza scare A survey found that 83 percent of Japanese were worried about food safety,

The investigation was problematic. Many of the workers at the plant where the gyoza was made — which employs between 2,000 and 4,000 people — for example, left shortly after the business was implicated in the scandal. The workers were paid about $140 a month for working 10 hours and were paid less than other workers in the area. There were reports of angry workers at the factory and some speculation that a disgruntled employee may have deliberately poisoned the dumplings.

In August 2008, the Chinese government did an about face and said the gyoza was likely tainted in China. It reported that poisoned products produced Tianynag Food in Hebei Province not only were consumed in Japan but also were consumed in China as well. The details of how the methamidophes entered the gyoza is still under investigation.

Large amounts of frozen gyoza recalled following the revelations of food poisoning were distributed, much of it given free to workers as a bonus, to several steel firms in China. There were no reports of people suffering from food poisoning who worked at the steel firms and ate the gyoza.

China’s state-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission ordered Hebei Iron & Steel to buy the recalled gyoza to bail out the food manufacturers under the commission’s supervision.

Several people at the Tianyang Food company were detained and family members of factory employees were questioned. No hard evidence was found linking anyone to the poisonings.

China’s food exports to Japan plunged 30 percent in February 2008 after the gyoza scare.

In April 2010, authorities in China announced they had arrested a 36-year-old former employee at Tianyang named Lu Yueting for poisoning the gyoza that sickened 10 people. The suspect — a disgruntled temporary worker upset that he was treated differently than full time workers and his wide was not given a bonus when she took maternity leave — allegedly injected the gyoza with a pesticide on three separate occasions between October and December 2007. According to newspaper reports he used methamidophos pesticide taken from the cleaning department of the Tianyang Food Factory and syringes thrown away by a medical institution. The Chinese government banned the Chinese media from covering the arrest and were told to use official Xinhua news releases.

Tainted Eggs and Honey

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In September 2008, eggs tainted with melamine were found in Dalian in northeast China. A few weeks later melamine-tainted eggs that originated from the same city turned up in Hong Kong. The eggs were processed by Dalian Hanwei Enterprise Group. Eggs in Hong Kong produced by Jingshan Pengchang Agricultural Products in Hubei Province were also found to have excessive amounts of melamine. These disclosures set off concerns that melamine-tainted livestock feed had entered the wider food chain and tainted a wide range of food including farm raised meats and fish.

An investigators revealed that the source of the melamine was poultry feed, The owner of Chinese feed factory suspected of adding melamine to his feed was arrested. In the meantime an official in the Agriculture Ministry said tainted eggs were an isolated case and investigators were ordered to crack the “dark” networks selling contaminated animals feed. Inspectors found that more than 500 feed-makers and animals breeding farms that engaged in illegal or questionable practices, with intensive investigation of 27 companies, some of which were likened organized crime syndicates and “black nests of gangsters.”

There are also concerns about Chinese honey. In1997 Chinese beehives were almost wiped by a bacterial epidemic. Instead of destroying the hive beekeepers treated them with chloramphenicol, a toxic antibiotic linked with the serious blood disorder aplastic anemia. Some hive are still tainted

Anti-Freeze-Tainted Vinegar

In August 2011, AP reported, vinegar tainted with antifreeze was suspected of killing 11 people and sickening 120 after a communal Ramadan meal at a village in Hotan China's far western region of Xinjiang. Investigators suspect the victims consumed vinegar that was put in two plastic barrels that had previously been used to store toxic antifreeze, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Monday.

The victims were Muslims who were sharing an evening meal after the daily fast observed during the holy month of Ramadan. Xinhua said children as young as 6 were among the dead. One person among the 120 sickened was still in critical condition. China’s food safety problems are well-known and revenge attacks using rat poison or other chemicals also occur. But accidental contamination is also a problem, caused by low hygiene standards, particularly in rural areas, and weak quality control by regulators.

Toxic Buns in China

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In April 2011, CCTV reported: “Is anything safe to eat anymore? Just the other day, we told you about the glow-in-the-dark pork being sold in Pudong. Now, apparently, it's the mantou, or the processed steamed buns we need to be watching out for.In an investigative report on CCTV2 last night, an undercover reporter visited the Shanghai Shenglu Food Company in Baoshan district to observe the manufacturing process. [Source: Shanghaiist.com, April 12, 2011]

Here's what he found: 1) Buns past their expiry date and returned from the supermarkets were thrown into the mixers to produce new buns. 2) Sodium cyclamate, an artificial sweetener, potassium sorbate, a food preservative, were added, although none of these additives were listed as ingredients. 3) What's being sold as corn flour buns has no corn in it, just yellow colouring. 4) Chemicals were added in random amounts, according to "feeling". 5) Food was handled without the use of gloves

Shenglu is one of the bigger processed bun manufacturers in Shanghai, producing about 30,000 mantou's that are sent to about 400 retail stores across the city everyday, including Hualian and Lianhua supermarkets. A massive recall has already been ordered and the Shanghai Industrial and Commercial Administrative Bureau has promised a city-wide inspection.

Six Die after China Cook Mistakes Poison for Flour

In November 2007, Reuters reported: “A Chinese cook who mistook a packet of rat poison for flour when making rice dumplings inadvertently killed himself and five others, state media reports. The six died after eating dumpling soup last week, prompting a police investigation to see if any crime had been committed, the Shanghai Daily said. Chen Ruyan, who worked at a recycling station in the central province of Hubei, was preparing lunch last Sunday. "In the process, Chen found the rice dough he was preparing for making "tangyuan" (rice dumplings) was quite watery and he decided to add more rice flour," the paper said. "Unfortunately, he mistook rat poison that had been placed together with other condiments as flour and mixed it into the dough." [Source: Reuters, November 19, 2007]

Investigators found Chen, who sold rat poison as a business, had put the chemicals in the kitchen when he moved home. Reports of usually non-fatal food poisoning at school canteens and restaurants, especially in the countryside, are common.

Gutter Oil in China

In March 2011, David Barboza wrote in the New York Times, “Regulators are investigating whether restaurants throughout China are creating food hazards by cooking with recycled oil, some tainted with food waste, and prominence given to the issue in the state-controlled media suggests that the problem could be widespread. [Source: David Barboza, New York Times, March 31, 2010]

The State Food and Drug Administration issued a nationwide emergency notice telling health bureaus to investigate the sources of cooking oil in mid-March. The notice came shortly after a professor and a group of students at Wuhan Polytechnic University announced that they had found widespread use of recycled oil in their region in an undercover investigation. The professor, He Dongping, asserted that recycled oil was being used to prepare 1 in 10 meals in China.

Regulators are now searching for illegal oil recycling mills, and some health bureaus have begun releasing the names of restaurants and food establishments that were found to be using questionable oil. Last November, regulators in southern China raided several workshops for turning discarded waste — possibly even sewage — into cooking oil.

In the city of Chengdu, in southwestern China, food safety officials released the names of 13 restaurants that were found to be using illegal cooking oil. The restaurants specialized in hot pot, a popular simmered dish. City residents voiced anger at Chengdu regulators for having delayed the release of some of the names of the implicated restaurants, according to the English-language newspaper China Daily. Here in Shanghai, regulators have warned that illegal cooking oil could be a problem because a large portion of restaurant food grease goes unaccounted for.

Huang Fenghong, deputy director of the Oil Crops Research Institute at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, said the use of illegal cooking oil was a serious problem in China. ‘some low-end restaurants establish stable buy-and-sell relationships with underground oil recyclers,” he said in a telephone interview this week. ‘some oil recyclers just dig out the oil from drains, because high-end restaurants seldom sell that drainage oil.”

Crackdown on Gutter Oil

In September 2011, AP reported: “Chinese police have detained 32 people in a nationwide crackdown on "gutter oil," or old kitchen oil that has been illegally recycled, authorities said. The Ministry of Public Security said in a statement on its website that police had seized 100 tons (90 metric tons) of the potentially harmful oil in 14 provinces. The campaign is part of an effort to clean up China's food safety record. [Source: AP, September 13, 2011]

Police in Henan and the eastern provinces of Zhejiang and Shandong have found more than 100 tonnes of the recycled oil illegally made from leftovers taken from gutters, the Ministry of Public Security said in a statement. The ministry said six workshops were closed, including one operated by Jinan Green Bio Oil Co., a business that claimed to be turning kitchen oil into fuel but that was actually churning out recycled cooking oil that it passed off as new. Recycled oil can contain carcinogens and traces of aflatoxin, a potentially deadly mold.

"Not only did we destroy a criminal chain that was illegally turning gutter oil into food oil, we also unveiled the greed of the criminals and pulled back the curtain on the immoral acts of those producing this poisonous and harmful food oil," the statement said. It didn't specify what charges the 32 people in detention would face or say when the crackdown started.

Reporter Killed Because of the Cooking Oil Scam?

AFP reported: “A Chinese journalist who had been following a scandal involving the sale of cooking oil made from leftovers taken from gutters has been stabbed to death, police and state media said. Li Xiang, 30, a reporter with Luoyang Television Station in the central province of Henan, was knifed more than 10 times as he returned home from a karaoke session with friends, the Zhengzhou Evening News reported. [Source: AFP, September 20 2011]

The laptop computer Li had been carrying was missing and police were treating the case as a murder-robbery, but have not ruled other motives, the report added. The last post on Li's micro-blog on September 15 said web users "had complained that Luanchuan county (in Henan) has dens manufacturing gutter cooking oil, but the food safety commission replied that they didn't find any".

Bloggers said they suspected Li's death was related to his previous reports on the "gutter" cooking oil cases."Luoyang Television Station reporter Li Xiang got stabbed to death, I suspect it's related to his reports on 'gutter' cooking oil," a web user said on Sina's popular social networking site Weibo. "Li Xiang's stabbing death is the unfortunate outcome of investigating the gutter cooking oil cases," another user said.

In September 2011, police in central Henan Province arrested two men suspected of killing Li. Police in the city of Luoyang said the murder was not connected with the gutter oil scandal. They said the two suspects killed Mr. Li during a robbery early morning outside the gate of his apartment complex. The men stole his laptop, camera and wallet after stabbing him 10 times, the police said. [Source: Andrew Jacobs, New York Times, September 21, 2011]

Mr. Li’s employer at Luoyang Television has expressed doubts that his murder was connected to his work, saying he seldom took on investigative projects. Violence against muckraking journalists is rare in China although intimidation by the police and government officials is not uncommon.

Chinese Bad Meat Scandal of 2014

In July 2014, a Chinese meat factory owned by Shanghai Husi Food Co—a unit of U.S.-based food supplier OSI Group—was forced by government authorities in China to shut down following allegations that workers at the factory used expired meat and doctored food production dates. The irregularities Food came to light after a Shanghai-based satellite TV station—Dragon TV—sneakily shot video footage inside the factory that showed staff at there using long expired meat and picking up food from the floor to add back to the mix to be made into processed chicken. State media said that authorities had confirmed the allegations made by Dragon. The "bad meat" scandal, as it has been called by Chinese media, became big news in Japan and Hong Kong as well as China.

Sophie Jane Evans wrote in the Daily Mail, the Dragon TV report “showed workers apparently picking up meat from the factory floor, as well as mixing meat beyond its expiration date with fresh produce. Shockingly, employees were even heard saying that if their clients knew what they were doing, the firm would lose its contracts. [Source: Sophie Jane Evans, Daily Mail, July 22, 2014 |::|]

The Shanghai Municipal Food and Drug Administration shut down Husi after the local Chinese TV broadcast aired, launched an investigation into the allegations, and told customers to suspend use of the supplier's products. The “company has been sealed and suspect products seized,” the Shanghai Municipal Food and Drug Administration said on its website. The Communist Party secretary of Shanghai, Han Zheng, called for 'severe punishment' of any wrongdoing. |::|

OSI said on its Chinese website that management was 'appalled by the report.' The company has formed its own investigation team, is fully cooperating with government inspectors and will take all necessary actions based on results of the investigation. 'Management believes this to be an isolated event, but takes full responsibility for the situation,' OSI said. OSI, which has close to 60 manufacturing facilities worldwide and had revenue of more than $5 billion in 2012, has been supplying McDonald's in China since 1992 and KFC and Pizza Hut parent Yum since 2008, according to its website. |::|

Toru Makinoda wrote in the Yomiuri Shimbun, According to Dragon TV “the food company’s workers, wearing white clothes, masks and gloves, cooked and processed 18 tons of chicken meat in one day with machines to make nuggets. The TV station’s reporter found many bags containing chicken meat that showed they had passed a quality preservation period by nearly half a month. However, other workers said, “It doesn’t matter; bring them [to the processing machines].” According to the report by the TV station, one of workers said, “You won’t die even if you eat a product that passed the [quality preservation] period.” [Source: Toru Makinoda, Yomiuri Shimbun, July 24, 2014]

Reuters reported: “The scare stirred local consumers and become one of the most discussed topics online among the country’s influential netizens, with some users spreading long lists of firms thought to be tarnished. China’s food safety regulator said it ordered regional offices to carry out spot checks on all firms that had used Shanghai Husi products, and would inspect all of parent OSI’s sites around China to see whether enough has been done to ensure food safety. It said the case could be handed over to the police. The regulator’s Shanghai branch said that it had demanded production, quality-control and sales records from OSI.” [Source: Reuters, July 23, 2014 ^\^]

“The incident highlights the difficulty in ensuring quality and safety along the supply chain in China. Wal-Mart Stores Inc came under the spotlight early this year after a supplier’s donkey meat product was found to contain fox meat. It also came under fire for selling expired duck meat in 2011. ^\^

McDonald's and KFC Caught Up in Chinese Bad Meat Scandal

Associated Press reported: “Dragon TV said on Sunday that Husi, owned by OSI Group of Aurora, Ill., repackaged stale beef and chicken and put new expiration dates on them. It said they were sold to McDonald's, KFC and Pizza Hut restaurants.McDonald's Corp. and Yum Brands Inc., which owns KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, said in separate statements they were conducting their own investigations. "Food safety is a top priority for McDonald's," the company said on its microblog account. The company said it pursues "strict compliance" with consumer safety laws and regulations and has "zero tolerance for illegal behavior." [Source: Associated Press, July 21, 2014 =]

“KFC is China's biggest restaurant chain, with more than 4,000 outlets and plans to open 700 more this year. The company was badly hurt after state television reported in December 2013 that some poultry suppliers violated rules on drug use in chickens. Yum said KFC sales in China plunged 37 percent the following month. KFC launched an effort to tighten control over product quality and eliminated more than 1,000 small poultry producers from its supply network. =

Steroid-Tainted Pork in China

Barbara Demick wrote in the Los Angeles Times, “It was a wedding the guests would never forget. Everybody of consequence in the village had been invited to a banquet to celebrate the marriage of the son of one of the wealthiest families. Fifty tables groaned under a lavish spread of dumplings, steamed chickens, pork ribs, meatballs, stir fries, all of it exceptionally delicious, guests would later recall. But about an hour into the meal, something seemed to be wrong. A pregnant woman collapsed. Old men clutched their chests. Children vomited. [Source: Barbara Demick, Los Angeles Times, June 26, 2011]

Out of about 500 people at the April 23 banquet in Wufeng, 286 went to the hospital. Doctors at the No. 3 Xiangya Hospital in nearby Changsha, capital of Hunan province, blamed pork contaminated with clenbuterol, a steroid that makes pigs grow faster and leaner. Consumed by humans in excess quantity, it can cause heart palpitations, nausea, convulsions, dizziness and vomiting. "It was as though he was poisoned," said a villager named Dai, whose husband was hospitalized for five days.

Clenbuterol, the suspect in the poisoning, results in a larger, leaner pig that yields more expensive meat. Although it was banned in pig feed in the 1990s, it is still used under the name "lean pork powder," because lean pork commands about 60 cents more per pound than fatty pork.

"The profit margin is bigger than drug trafficking if you add the lean pork powder to the pig food," said Zhou Qing, an author and dissident, who has styled himself as China's equivalent of Upton Sinclair, whose 1906 novel, "The Jungle," exposed the horrors of the U.S. meatpacking industry.

Wal-Mart’s Chinese Donkey Meat Scandal

In January 2014, Wal-Mart recalled donkey meat sold at some outlets in China after tests showed the product contained the DNA of other animals including foxes. Adam Jourdan of Reuters wrote: Wal-Mart will reimburse customers who bought the tainted "Five Spice" donkey meat and is helping local food and industry agencies in eastern Shandong province investigate its Chinese supplier, it said in official posts on China's Twitter-like Weibo. The Shandong Food and Drug Administration earlier said the product contained fox meat. "This is another hit on Wal-Mart's brand, meaning wealthy shoppers will start to lose the trust they had before," said Shaun Rein, Shanghai-based managing director of China Market Research (CMR) Group. [Source: Adam Jourdan, Reuters, January 2, 2014 |~|]

“Donkey meat is a popular snack in some areas of China. Wal-Mart said it had set up an investigation team to look into the incident, would strengthen food safety rules and take legal action against the product supplier. It added the person in charge at the supplier factory had already been detained. "We are deeply sorry for this whole affair," said Wal-Mart's China president and CEO, Greg Foran. "It is a deep lesson (for us) that we need to continue to increase investment in supplier management." |~|

“Consumers on popular microblogging site Sina Weibo were at a loss whether to criticize Wal-Mart or support it. Online sentiment can spread quickly in China where there is a high proportion of social media users. "Isn't fox meat more expensive than donkey meat anyway?" asked one bemused user.” |~|

Clenbuterol-Tainted Meat Court Case

In March 2011, the China Central Television reported that some pork producers had used pork tainted with the fat-burning drug clenbuterol in its products. The chemical, which can cause cancers and various health problems and therefore banned in the food production, were even detected in pigs purchased by a subsidiary company of Shuanghui Group, China's largest meat processor. The scandal trapped the Henan-based company in a mass of media and public lambaste, causing tremendous losses for the meat giant as supermarkets across the nation rushed to move off its products from shelves amid online calls to boycott anything from the company.

In July 2011, Xinhua reported: “The Intermediate People's Court of the city of Jiaozuo in central Henan province opened court on Monday morning in the case of the production and sale of clenbuterol, a poisonous chemical that boosts the output of lean meat. Liu Xiang, Xi Zhongjie, Xiao Bing, Chen Yuwei and Liu Honglin, producers and dealers of clenbuterol, are being prosecuted for the crime of "endangering public security by using dangerous means." [Source: Xinhua, July 25, 2011]

Liu Honglin is being sued as an accomplice for purchasing raw materials for clenbuterol production, while the others as principal defendants, according to the indictment. Liu Xiang and Xi Zhongjie were responsible for producing and selling over 2,700 kilograms of clenbuterol, generating an illegal profit of 2.5 million yuan (387,000 U.S.dollars); Zhengzhou-based Chen Yuwei was responsible for selling over 600 kilograms of clenbuterol, generating a profit of 700,000 yuan; Luoyang-based Xiao Bing sold 1,300 kilograms, raking in a profit of more than 600,000 yuan.

The clenbuterol they produced or sold was distributed to eight provincial regions, including Henan, Shandong and Jiangsu, the indictment says. The indictment states that the five suspects, despite possessing knowledge of the harm of clenbuterol, nevertheless became involved in the production and sale of it.Their acts also brought tremendous losses to the local livestock-farming industry, the indictment said.

The accused, however, defended themselves by pointing out the loopholes in pork processing companies and government supervision. They also argued there was no relevant case in which consumers got ill as a result of taking in clenbuterol-tainted meat. The court debate also centered on the charge of "endangering public security by using dangerous means," which, if put into the verdict, will set a legal precedence on Chinese courts dealing with food safety cases.

Sudan Red Dye, Antibiotics and Steroids at Kentucky Fried Chicken

The Beijing News reported that KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken). openly admitted that the presence of Sudan I - a red, chemical dye which is thought to contribute to cancer - has been discovered in two products sold on the Chinese market: the 'New Orleans Roast Chicken Wings' and the 'New Orleans Roast Chicken Legs'. Pepsi China Corporation - proprietor of the KFC brand - iapologized to Chinese consumers for the Sudan I problem but puts all the blame on their suppliers:

The company said: "Despite having many times required our suppliers to guarantee that their products shouldn't contain Sudan I - and obtained their written confirmation - we are extremely sorry to admit that this ingredient has been discovered in the 'New Orleans' roast Chicken and Legs". Earlier another food product was found to contain Sudan I, a pepper sauce called Meiweiyuan produced by the Guangzhou based Heinz Meiweiyuan Food, a subsidiary of the US famous brand.

In December 2012, news services disclosed that suppliers of KFC violated rules on drugs use in poultry caused sales for the restaurant chain to plunge. KFC estimated sales in January dropped 37 percent and the company announced tighter quality control measures in an effort to win back customers. Shanghai's food safety authority said the level of antibiotics and steroids in Yum Brands Inc's KFC chicken was within official limits, but found a suspicious level of an antiviral drug in one of the eight samples tested. Yum faced criticism last week from China's state-owned broadcaster, which said Yum's KFC chickens in China contained an excessive level of antibiotics.

Text Sources: New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Times of London, National Geographic, The New Yorker, Time, Newsweek, Reuters, AP, Lonely Planet Guides, Compton’s Encyclopedia and various books and other publications.

Last updated July 2015