Liaoning police seize 6 tons of poisonous food in factory bust
Police in Yingkou, Northeast China’s Liaoning Province shut down seven illegal food factories where poisonous substances, including industrial gelatin, were added to food products and sold to more than 100 localities in eight provinces, news portal thepaper. cn reported Monday.
A total of 10 suspects were arrested for producing hazardous food products at seven locations in Yingkou on June 23, China Food News reported on July 11.
According to the report, local police seized 6 tons of poisonous food products and 3.6 tons of illegal additives from the factories, including industrial gelatin and sodium nitrite.
Police then traced the industrial gelatin back to another criminal group in Tonghua, Northeast China’s Jilin Province and found that the group had purchased more than 10,000 tons of industrial gelatin for 15,000 yuan ($ 2,246) per ton since 2012, thepaper. cn reported.
The group then resold the gelatin in bags labeled with food- grade product symbols to over 100 counties and townships in eight provinces, including Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning provinces, thepaper. cn reported.
Most of the toxic gelatin was added to food products such as sausages, the total value of which amounted to nearly 100 million yuan.
The heavy metals in industrial gelatin can be harmful to humans’ health, and China blacklisted industrial gelatin as a harmful food additive in May 2009.
Liu Qiang of the Yingkou Public Security Bureau told thepaper. cn that adding gelatin can radically reduce the costs of processing cold noodles or sausages and can double their shelf life.
Criminal gangs’ involvement in hazardous food cases has become more difficult to detect, and fines or short prison sentences do little to deter them because of the huge profits that can be made from food- related schemes, a Yingkou police officer told thepaper. cn.
Lü Haishan, a lawyer from Liaoning- based Huajun Law Firm, told thepaper. cn that the Criminal Law Amendment has only increased fines for making or selling poisonous food, while prison terms for such crimes were not increased.
Lü also noted that many local food and drug administrations are short- staffed and lack funding to strengthen supervision.