Yahoo – AFP,
December 29, 2014
Beijing (AFP) - China has dismissed eight officials after pork from pigs infected with a "highly contagious virus" was found to have entered the market, state media said Monday.
China officials dismissed over diseased meat scandal |
Beijing (AFP) - China has dismissed eight officials after pork from pigs infected with a "highly contagious virus" was found to have entered the market, state media said Monday.
The
country's latest food scandal was revealed in an investigation by state
broadcaster China Central Television which said the annual revenue of the
tainted pork was more than 20 million yuan ($3.2 million).
The meat
had come from slaughterhouses in the city of Gaoan in central Jiangxi province
and had entered at least seven provinces in total, said the report, which was
first broadcast Saturday.
"Some
of the pigs had a highly contagious virus," added the report, which
contained grisly images inside slaughterhouses of scattered pig carcasses, many
with their bellies cut.
The
state-run China Radio International (CRI) said Monday: "Eight officials...
have been dismissed for negligence, over sales of pork from pigs that were
sick, or had already died."
Strict
health standards are required for dead pigs under Chinese food production laws.
A report by
state news agency Xinhua said the dismissed officials work in "animal
husbandry and commerce authorities" in Gaoan.
CRI also
quoted an official from Gaoan saying 12 suspects had been detained while an
"illegal slaughtering site" had been destroyed and another sealed. It
did not say whether the eight dismissed officials were included in this figure.
The city is
one of China's major pork producers with more than two million pigs slaughtered
every year, reports say. The meat is a staple in the Chinese diet.
Poor food
safety is a major concern in China, where standards are lax and scandals
involving tainted products are common.
China was
rocked by one of its biggest-ever food safety scandals in 2008 when the
industrial chemical melamine was found to have been illegally added to dairy
products, killing at least six babies and making 300,000 people ill.
No comments:
Post a Comment