32 tons of expired papaya confiscated in East China

World Today

Only weeks after 30-year-old expired meat worth up to 3 billion yuan ($483 million) was found by Chinese police, another food security scandal was exposed in east China on Tuesday, involving 32.68 tons of expired papaya.

The papaya products, mainly dried fruits made around 2010, were confiscated at a refrigeration house in Jiangbei district in the city of Ningbo, in Zhejiang province, and have been expired for over two years, the Qianjiang Evening News reported.

Local government authorities have fined the company 1.4 million yuan ($225,000) as punishment, but the name of the company has not been revealed.

According to the latest trading records, 25 tons of the expired products were sold to a food processing firm in the city of Suzhou in Zhejiang’s neighboring Jiangsu province. They might have beenused to make fruit juice and jam, said Wang Wei, a police officer responsible for the area’s market supervision.

Chinese police busted a total of 21 gangs smuggling frozen meat products in late June in a nationwide anti-smuggling campaign. More than 100,000 tons of frozen meat in that bust were also found to be expired for over 30 years.

The low-cost of storage, according to media reports, has resulted in rampant smuggling of frozen meat in China.

Story by CCTV News