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Cabbages are a staple food in China but can rot quickly in the heat |
Vegetable
sellers in China have been caught spraying cabbages with a formaldehyde
solution to keep them fresh in transit, the state news agency Xinhua has
reported.
Xinhua said
the practice had been common in eastern China for years.
The agency
said it was being done because most farmers cannot afford refrigerated trucks
for cabbages.
Formaldehyde
is a toxic cancer-causing compound often used as a disinfectant and for
embalming.
It can irritate
the skin and cause breathing and digestive problems.
Cabbage is
a staple food in China, often used as a filling in dumplings, but also
stir-fried or pickled.
In recent
years the country has faced a series of food safety scandals, including the
lacing of baby-milk with the industrial chemical melamine.
Xinhua
reported on Monday that dozens of wholesale vegetable dealers in Qingzhou city
- in Shandong province - were caught selling cabbage sprayed with formaldehyde.
It did not
say if the dealers had been arrested and what punishments they might face.
It said the
practice has become so widespread over the last three years because vegetables
in warmer months rot quickly in transit.
Correspondents
say that China's wholesale vegetable dealers are not required to use
refrigerated trucks for produce, and few can afford it.
China's
health ministry in 2008 published a list of illegal food additives that
included formaldehyde.
The
chemical has also been reportedly used to soak some dried seafood to make it
appear more fresh and plump.
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