Gangs have been found smuggling 40-year-old frozen meat in the latest terrifying food scandal to hit China.
Pig trotters from the 1970s and chicken wings from the 1980s have been discovered in a crackdown launched earlier this month, with the frozen goods dubbed ‘zombie meat’ by social media users.
Officials have seized more than 100,000 tonnes of meat worth three billion Yuan (£300 million), reported the People’s Daily Online.
More than twenty illegal gangs selling the meat have been smashed across the country so far.
In Hunan province custom officials seized 800 tonnes of illegally smuggled meat worth of 10 million Yuan (£1 million), representing its largest haul in recent years.
A total of 22 people were arrested including the two ring leaders, named by media as Li and Zhong.
The smuggled meat is often from Vietnam and organised gangs from across the country are selling the the rancid meat to millions of unsuspecting Chinese consumers.
Zhang Tao, a customs official in Hunan, said: ‘It stank! The entire truck was full. I almost threw up when I opened the doors.’
Yang Bo, deputy director of the customs bureau in Changsha, said the smuggled meat had not been inspected or quarantined,
He added the meat could carry bird flu, foot and mouth disease as well as mad cow disease.
