Factory sending dead pigs to markets triggers worries
An emergency plan has been implemented after dead pigs were reported to have been traded, processed and sent to markets in Guangzhou, South China’s Guangdong Province.
On Saturday, an undercover video aired by local broadcaster TVS News shows pigs that died from disease or natural causes were sold to butchers and slaughtered in the Heyi Meat Association Ltd, a pork processing plant in Foshan. The pork products were then sent to a market 60 kilometers away in Guangzhou.
A government document says dead pigs should go through a special disposal procedure. But instead, the video shows the dead pigs were sent to the butchers, who benefited financially from the illegal sale, and stamped with qualified quarantine stamps, and loaded in a truck heading to Guangzhou, without being inspected or intercepted.
Two pork vendors in Dinggang farmer’s market in Guangzhou’s Huangpu district claimed the pork was safe.
A comprehensive inspection has been carried out in markets, grocery stories and meat shops across the city, with a focus on animal quarantine certificates and inspection certificates of meat quality, according to the announcement issued by the Guangzhou Market Supervision Administration on Monday afternoon.
The administration said they have inspected 1,699 food vendors, and all the pork products of the Heyi Meat Association have been removed from shelves.
“The inspection team has not yet inspected our market,” said the head of Shabu Market, another farmers’ market in Huangpu district. “It is very easy to tell dead from live pigs by color, smell and texture.”
Heyi Meat Association is on the list of the Pig Slaughtering Standardization Enterprises, which means the meat they produce and offer is considered healthy.
The Foshan government is investigating the case, and has ordered the company to stop doing business for the meantime as part of the extended inspection of all the factories in the district, according to the Guangzhou announcement.
This has sparked concerns over food safety. “The percentage of dead pigs being sold to the market remains unknown. I don’t think I will eat any pork products until the inspection is done,” said one netizen.