Slimy snails

Between June and August, 87 people fell ill after eating half-cooked snails in a Beijing restaurant. Tests carried out showed they had a type of angiostrongyliasis infection, in which parasites that attack the brain and the spinal cord that can lead to meningitis. On August 8, the authorities ordered the restaurant to stop selling the dish.

Meat menace

In mid-September, meat in some Shanghai markets was found to contain clenobuterol hydrochloride, a chemical added to pigs' fodder to get "leaner quality meat". In humans, the additive can cause vertigo and nausea, and a patient could slip into a coma and even die. Hence, it's strictly banned from being used in food products.

More than 300 people suffered clenobuterol hydrochloride poisoning. The Ministry of Agriculture swung into action and conducted thorough checks the markets and banned the sale of contaminated pork.

Edgy eggs

Mid-November: farmers and poultry owners in some parts of Hebei Province fed red sudan dye to their ducks to make them lay eggs with red yolks. The reason: eggs with red yolks fetch a higher price than those with regular yellow yolks. But red sudan dye is carcinogenic. Major cities soon banned the sale of such eggs. On November 27, the Ministry of Agriculture declared that all the red-yolk eggs and the ducks that had been fed with the cancer-causing dye had been destroyed.

Fish fear

At the end of November, Shanghai authorities found excessive cancer-causing chemical residues (nitrofuran and chloromycetin) in 30 samples of turbot, a flat fish served at banquets and upscale restaurants. The sale of the fish was banned later. Some farmers reportedly fed the fish large quantities of medicinal supplements, which had left harmful, cancer-causing residues, to raise their immunity to disease.

(China Daily 03/15/2007 page8)