• Rat meat sold as mutton: Crackdown sparks dozens of arrests in China

    Andy Wong / AP file

    People carry sticks of barbecued mutton through a crowd at a celebration in Beijing. Chinese authorities have announced a crackdown on sales of tainted and fraudulent meat, including rat passed off as mutton.

    By Michael Martina and Sally Huang, Reuters

    BEIJING -- Chinese police have broken a crime ring that passed off more than $1 million in rat and small-mammal meat as mutton in a food safety crackdown that coincides with a bird flu outbreak and other environmental pressures, authorities said.

    Authorities have arrested 904 suspects since the end of January for allegedly selling and producing fake or tainted meat products, the Ministry of Public Security said in a statement posted on its website on Thursday.

    Health officials in Taiwan are on guard after one of its citizens contracted the deadly strain of bird flu while on a business trip in China. NBC's Ian Williams reports.

    During the crackdown, police discovered one suspect who had used additives to spice up and sell rat, fox and mink meat at markets in Shanghai and Jiangsu province.

    Police arrested 63 suspects connected to the crime ring in a case valued at more than 10 million yuan, or $1.6 million, in sales since 2009.

    Despite persistent efforts by police, "food safety crimes are still prominent, and new situations are emerging with new characteristics," the ministry's statement said, citing "responsible officials."

    Police confiscated more than 22 tons of fake or inferior meat products after breaking up illegal food plants during the nationwide operation, the ministry said.

    Food safety and environmental pollution are chronic problems in China, and public anxiety over cases of fake or toxic food often spreads quickly.

    More than 1,000 dead ducks have been fished out of a river Sichuan, China. The discovery comes as the country deals with anger over the dumping of over 16,000 pigs elsewhere in China. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.

    In April, many consumers lost their appetite for poultry as an outbreak of the H7N9 bird flu virus spread in China. Sales dropped by 80 percent in eastern China, where the virus has been most prevalent, although experts stress that cooked chicken is perfectly safe.

    In March, more than 16,000 rotting pigs were found floating in one of Shanghai's main water sources, triggering a public outcry. Overcrowding at pig farms was probably behind the die-off and the pigs' disposal in the Huangpu River.

    The public security ministry said police had confiscated more than 15 metric tons of tainted pork in Anhui province, although as much as 60 metric tons had been sold in Anhui and Fujian provinces since mid-2012.

    But it was the rodent meat in particular that people couldn't stomach, with Internet users turning to the popular microblogging site Sina Weibo to vent their outrage.

    "Rats? How disgusting. Everything we eat is poison," one user wrote.

    Related:

    China finds coliform bacteria in chocolate cake

    Horse meat scandal keeps on growing

    More China coverage from our Behind the Wall blog

    Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

  • Horse meat found in Taco Bell products in UK

    By Rosalba O'Brien, Reuters

    LONDON -- Britain's food regulator said horse meat had been found in beef products at Taco Bell fast food outlets, the first time it has been discovered on sale in British restaurants since the scandal broke in January.

    The Food Standards Agency said Friday that it had conducted 1,797 tests over the past seven days, over 99 percent of which had come back negative for horse meat levels at or above 1 percent.

    However, four tests were positive, it said. These included Birds Eye ready meals and Brakes skewers, already withdrawn from sale.

    It added that no tests to date on samples containing horse DNA had found the veterinary medicine phenylbutazone, or "bute."

    Tex-Mex fast-food chain Taco Bell, owned by U.S. firm Yum Brands Inc., has three outlets in the U.K.

    "Some batches of ground beef supplied to us from one supplier in Europe tested positive for horse meat," Taco Bell U.K. said in a statement.

    "We immediately withdrew ground beef from sale in our restaurants, discontinued purchase of that meat, and contacted the Food Standards Agency with this information," it added.

    The news is awkward timing for Yum, which on Monday said it was moving to tighten food safety and reverse a sharp drop in business at its KFC restaurants in China after a scare over contaminated chicken.

    Related:

    'Fraud on a massive scale': Horse meat scandal keeps growing

    Hamburgers pulled from UK supermarket shelves over horse meat

    Burger King axes UK supplier in wake of horse meat scandal

     

    Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

  • China sacks three officials for GMO rice test: Xinhua

    By Reuters
    China has fired three officials for testing genetically modified rice on children as part of a Sino-U.S. research project, state media said on Thursday. 

    The officials from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the Zhejiang Academy of Medical Sciences were sacked for violating regulations, scientific ethics and academic integrity, Xinhua news agency said.

    The controversial test first came to light when environmental group Greenpeace said a U.S. Department of Agriculture-backed study used 24 Chinese children aged between six and eight to test genetically modified "golden rice."


    Tufts University, located outside Boston, said it had begun reviewing its 2008 research in August and has a five-member team investigating whether the study was in compliance with Chinese, U.S. and Tufts standards. 

    "While we respect China's review process which led to the statement, it would be premature for Tufts University to reach any conclusions before investigations currently under way in the United States are completed," university spokeswoman Andrea Goodman said in an e-mail.

    Golden rice, a new type of rice that contains beta carotene, is intended to alleviate vitamin A deficiency. 

    The three officials who were fired are Yin Shi'an from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Hu Yuming from the center's Hunan office, and Wang Yin from the Zhejiang Academy of Medical Sciences, Xinhua said.

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    The researchers had been criticized on Weibo, China's version of Twitter, and were accused of behaving unethically by running tests on poor, rural children whose families may not have been properly informed. 

    China is already the world's largest grower of GMO cotton and the top importer of GMO soybeans. 

    Although Beijing has approved homegrown strains of GMO rice, it is cautious about introducing the technology on a commercial basis due to food safety concerns.

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  • China-US project allegedly tested genetically modified 'golden rice' on kids

    By Reuters

    BEIJING -- China's health authorities will investigate allegations that genetically modified rice was tested on Chinese children as part of a Sino-U.S. research project, state media said Tuesday.

    One Chinese researcher has been suspended by authorities while investigations are carried out.

    China is already the world's largest grower of genetically modified (GMO) cotton and the top importer of GMO soybeans but, while Beijing has already approved home-grown strains of GMO rice, it remains cautious about introducing the technology on a commercial basis amid widespread public concern about food safety.


    The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention investigation came after a report last month by environmental group Greenpeace claimed that a U.S. Department of Agriculture-backed study used 24 Chinese children aged between six and eight to test genetically modified "golden rice."

    Golden rice, a new type of rice that contains beta carotene, is intended to alleviate vitamin A deficiency.

    The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention said no domestic institutions had been approved to participate in the research and that it had also asked Tufts University outside Boston to help investigate the issue.

    The International Rice Research Institute is working with leading nutrition and agricultural research organizations to develop and evaluate golden rice as a potential method to reduce vitamin A deficiency in the Philippines and Bangladesh.

    The research by Tufts University and other Chinese scientists was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in August. It aimed to demonstrate that the rice could provide a good source of vitamin A for children in countries where deficiency in the vitamin is common.

    Complete China coverage on NBCNews.com's Behind The Wall

    Tufts reviews protocols
    Andrea Grossman, assistant director of public relations at Tufts University, told state news agency Xinhua in a recent interview the university was deeply concerned about the allegations and is reviewing protocols used in the 2008 research "to ensure the strictest standards were adhered to."

    "We have always placed the highest importance on human health, and we take all necessary steps to ensure the safety of human research subjects," Grossman said.

    More coverage about food safety on NBCNews.com

    "We have always been and remain committed to the highest ethical standards in research," she said.

    The Greenpeace report sparked a wave of criticism on Weibo, China's version of Twitter, with the researchers accused of a breach of ethics for testing poor, rural children whose families may not have been informed properly.

    Complete World coverage on NBCNews.com

    Scientist suspended
    One of the Chinese authors, Shi-an Yin, has been suspended from work pending further investigation after his responses proved to be inconsistent, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention said.

    Yin was cited by the official People's Daily newspaper as saying he helped collect data for the study but was unaware that it involved GM rice.

    The second of the two Chinese researchers, Hu Yuming, denied his involvement in the research, the People's Daily said.

    PhotoBlog: China quake survivors await shelter, expect rain

    China, the world's top rice producer and consumer, approved the safety of one locally developed strain of genetically modified rice, known as the Bt rice, in 2009, but commercial production has been delayed.

    A University of Arizona researcher is working to create rice that will grow in desert conditions, as well as other drought resistant crops. KVOA's Danielle Lerner reports.

    Apart from genetically modified products, China's vast and unruly food sector is still struggling to come to grips with food safety four years after a major scandal where tainted milk powder was blamed for the deaths of at least six children.

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  • KFC told to pay $8.3 million to Australian girl poisoned by Twister wrap

    By Alastair Jamieson and msnbc.com news services

    SYDNEY - Fast-food chain KFC has been ordered to pay $8.3 million (AUS$8 million) in damages to the family of an Australian girl who was left severely brain damaged and in a wheelchair after being poisoned by a chicken meal. 

    In 2005, Monika Samaan, then aged seven, her parents and her brother were hospitalized with salmonella poisoning after eating a "Twister" chicken wrap at a KFC restaurant near Sydney. 

    KFC, owned by Kentucky-based Yum! Brands, said it was a tragic case but was "deeply disappointed and surprised by the decision" and would appeal against it. 

    It had denied being responsible for the girl’s illness, challenging her family's claims during a four-week trial.

    Last week, a New South Wales Supreme Court judge ruled in favor of the family, saying KFC had breached its duty of care to the girl. On Friday, it awarded the family A$8 million in damages, as well as court costs. 

    Coma
    Australian media quoted their lawyer, George Vlahakis, as saying the girl's illness had "exhausted the very limited resources of the family". 

    "The compensation ordered is very much needed," Vlahakis said. 

    The Sydney Morning Herald reported that, during a four-week trial in 2010, Monika's father Amanwial Samaan said he and his wife Hanna, son Abanou and Monika all fell ill with vomiting and diarrhea after sharing the Twister.

    Unlike Monika, who was in a coma for six months and in hospital for seven months, they recovered.

    Monika took the court action through her father, the newspaper reported.

    'Unsettling'
    KFC's lawyer, Ian Barker, QC, argued during the trial that there "never was a shared Twister" because there was no sales data to prove the family purchased it.

    "You did not tell anyone at the hospital, when you were there between October 27 and 29, that you had shared a KFC Twister that Monday," Barker said in court in July 2010.

    However, it reported that the trial also heard of hygiene practices at the restaurant that the family’s barrister described as "disturbing and unsettling."

    News site news.com.au reported that the girl’s grandmother had been the only member of the family not to have shared the Twister and was not taken ill.

    Experts at Westmead Hospital found Monika, her parents and older brother had a common strain of salmonella in their stools, although Monika's case was very rare.

    Reuters contributed to this report.

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  • Deadly Coca-Cola drink was poisoned, Chinese cops say

    By Msnbc.com staff and wire services

    BEIJING -- Chinese police believe a child who died after drinking a Coca Cola-made yogurt drink was probably the victim of deliberate poisoning, state media reported Tuesday.

    A testing agency found no toxins in samples from the same batch of the drink.

    "The police's technical tests and investigations have preliminarily confirmed that this incident is a criminal case in Changchun, which reaffirms that it is not related in any way to our product quality," Joanna Price, a spokeswoman for Coca-Cola said in an emailed statement.

    An 11-year-old boy died in Changchun city in Jilin province after he drank the strawberry-flavored Pulpy Milky yogurt drink on Nov. 28, and his mother was severely ill after consuming the same drink.

    Another mother and her daughter became ill after drinking another bottle of the same drink in Jilin a few days earlier, but recovered, Coca-Cola spokeswoman Price said earlier.

    Police have reached the "preliminary conclusion" that the drink was tampered with, the official Xinhua news agency said, citing the provincial public security office.

    Investigators in both cases found highly toxic pesticides present in the remains of the drinks, according to the report.

    But tests carried out by the China National Centre for Food Quality Supervision and Testing "showed no existence of Methomyl or thiodicarb, two toxic pesticides, on the samples of the same batch of the strawberry-flavored milk drinks taken by the victim," the Xinhua news agency reported late Monday.

    'Isolated act'
    Checks of the production process also found they were safe, the report also said, citing a statement from Coca-Cola. Checks of other Coca-Cola products on sale in Changchun also did not find toxins, the Xinhua report said.

    "All these tests and reviews indicate our products are safe and within standards," Price said in her email. "This incident is an isolated act that occurred in Changchun, and we are one hundred percent confident that our products are safe and in good quality."

    The company and officials earlier agreed the yogurt drink should be removed from shelves in Jilin province while the investigation was under way.

    Food scandals are common in China, where crackdowns have failed to stamp out poisonings and toxin outbreaks that have shaken consumer confidence.

    Foreign companies are watched closely as they are generally perceived to hold stricter standards. When Western companies are accused of transgressions, it becomes big news in China.

    The Xinhua report said cases in 2009 and 2010 of a man and a teenager being poisoned by mercury in Sprite, a Coke-produced soft drink, were traced to intentional poisonings, not quality problems.

    Coca-Cola controls about 63 percent of China's soft drinks market, Bloomberg reported.

    Reuters contributed to this report.

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