September 23, 2013

Chinese authorities confiscate over 20,000 kilogrammes of fake beef

Chinese police have seized more than 20,000 kilogrammes of fake beef from a factory in northwest China's Shaanxi province.

The fake beef was found to be actually made from pork, which had been treated with chemicals such as paraffin wax and industrial salts to make it look like beef.

According to a newspaper report, the factory produced and sold between 1,500 and 2,000 kilogrammes to local markets. It quoted police as saying the factory processed the pork at night and sold it as beef for between RMB25 (US$4.08) and RMB33 (US$5.40) per kilogramme the next day.

The police have also seized the meat of six other workshops that were found to be producing the fake beef as evidence.

News of this discovery is particularly notable given the fact that Xi'an, the capital of Shaanxi, has a large Muslim community, and some may have fallen victim to purchasing evidently non-Halal food.

This was not the first time tainted meat has been found to be sold in China. In May, it was reported that 904 people were arrested for "meat-related offences" in the first part of this year.

According to China's public security ministry, in the course of these arrests, more than 22 fake or inferior meat products were seized which had E. coli levels that "seriously exceeded standards".

The arrests included a ring of meat crooks who made more than RMB10 million (US$2.04 million) from passing off rat, fox and mink meat as mutton, after treating it with gelatine, carmine and nitrate. The "mutton" was then sold in Jiangsu and Shanghai farmers' markets.