Fox and rat passed off as lamb in China

A three-month Chinese Ministry of Public Security (MPS) campaign has resulted in the arrest of 904 people who are alleged to have been involved in meat-related crimes such as producing fake beef and mutton made from rat and fox.

The ministry said since 25 January, police had uncovered 382 cases involving meat-related offences, and seized more than 20,000 tonnes of illegal products.

Crimes also included the production of water-injected meat, the use of chemicals while processing products, as well as the selling of diseased and fake meat.

The ministry published five typical cases uncovered during the campaign.

In Wuxi, in east China’s Jiangsu Province, suspects made fake mutton from fox, mink and rat by adding chemicals. The products were sold to markets and the suspects made more than 10 million yuan (US$1.62 million) from the illegal activities.

In south-west China’s Guizhou Province, police in March busted two meat processing and selling dens and arrested six suspects. According to an initial investigation, the suspects had been using hydrogen peroxide solution to process chicken claws since July 2011. With an output of 300 kg per day, suspects made more than 4 million yuan in profits.

The police are now claimed to be focusing on crimes involving dairy products as there are apparently some deep-seated food safety problems which have not yet been solved.