May 10, 2013

Chinese authorities seize 30 tonnes of frozen beef

Due to insufficient inspection certificates required, district authorities have confiscated 30 tonnes of frozen beef from a wholesale market in Putuo district.

Putuo district police and commerce officials have tested the beef and found that two tonnes had been deliberately injected with water, which violates food quality standards, according to a report. They confiscated the beef on March 8.

Following an investigation, a suspect surnamed Jin, who hired a truck to deliver the beef from a plant in Hebei Province, turned himself in to police on April 18. He said there had been proper inspection certificates for the beef, but he had lost them.

Police found 13 shipping orders for the beef on the truck, but seen only six safety inspection certificates, the report said. There were two other inspection certificates, but they did not match any of the shipping orders.

Investigators found that only a portion of the beef had been sold to the wholesale market on Caoyang Road. Some had been sold to an unnamed store, and some had been sold to the Shanghai branch of Beijing Hongchen Guangda Trade Co, which told investigators it intended to resell the beef in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province.

A company manager surnamed Yang acknowledged that there were no safety inspection certificates for the beef, but argued that about 60% of frozen meat sold in the local market lacks such certificates.

A company found violating China's Food Safety Law can be fined five to 10 times the value of the products sold, in cases where the their value exceeds RMB10,000 (US$1,630). Police have not determined whether the beef poses a health risk.

The beef that police sent to a laboratory for non-staple food was only tested for excessive amounts of water and ractopamine, an animal feed additive that helps livestock stay lean, the newspapers reported.

Under national standards, the frozen beef should also be tested for other potential health hazards, such as heavy metals, a source from the laboratory said. The beef was not the first Jin had shipped to the local market. A truck driver said that he had helped Jin transport 10 tonnes of beef to Shanghai in February. However, it was difficult to find out where the beef ended up because they did not give invoices or other documents to their buyers.

Meat is always supposed to be shipped with invoices, as well as other documents so authorities can track down where it came from, said Zhang Yusong, press officer with the Shanghai Municipal Administration for Industry and Commerce.