BEIJING - A woman, who sold expired food to small restaurants, was detained by the commerce authority in Daxing district on Thursday.

At 4:30 am on Thursday, more than 20 officials with the district's industry and commerce administration caught a vendor at a rural market selling expired food to a buyer, said an official with the administration, who did not want to be named.

The officials confiscated the woman's motor tricycle, which was filled with hams and cooked pigs' feet that were past their sell-by date.

The raid came after a Beijing News report that claimed the woman had long been selling expired foods to owners and cooks of small local restaurants.

"She usually ran her business from 4 am to 7 am at the gate of the market," the officer said, without giving the woman's name. "All the ham and pigs' feet had already expired and she sold them cheap."

The woman confessed that most of the hams, sausages and pig's feet were purchased from supermarkets when they disposed of their expired foods, said the officer.

"The woman may be handed over to the police if her case is considered serious," he added.

However, despite the woman's detention some people still criticized the authorities for being slow to act.

"They act only after residents' complain or if there are media reports. I think their sluggish methods will not be able to eliminate the problem," Zhang Fa, an employee of the Capital Library in Beijing, told China Daily.

Sang Liwei, a food-safety lawyer and the China representative of the Global Food Safety Forum, also said the relevant administrations have not taken proper measures to handle such illegal behavior.

"Expired food is potentially dangerous," he added.

Sang said that administrative supervision should be strengthened, and people who buy or supply expired foods should be punished.

China Daily

(China Daily 06/17/2011 page7)