40-year-old 'zombie' meat smuggled into China

More than 100,000 tons of frozen chicken, beef and pork smuggled into China — some of it four decades old and posing a dangerous health risk — were seized in a recent crackdown on food spirited into the country, Chinese media outlets reported Wednesday.

Fourteen gangs were involved in smuggling the frozen food valued at nearly half a billion dollars, the Chinese General Administration of Customs told China Daily.

Arrests and seizures occurred in 14 provinces and regions throughout the nation this month. Much of the meat was expired, some of it from the 1970s.

In Hunan Province in southern China, 20 members of two gangs were taken into custody and 800 tons of food were seized.

"The products filled an entire compartment. It was smelly, and I nearly threw up when I opened the door," Zhang Tao, an administrative official, told China Daily.

The Hunan seizure included frozen chicken feet, a popular Chinese snack served cold and with beer, the state-run news agency Xinhua reported.

News of the smuggled food swept the Internet in China where tens of thousands complained about "Jiangshi Fengzhao" or "zombie chicken feet" being slipped past official food inspections.

A customs official told Xinhua that importers were bringing in food infested with bacteria and soaked in hydrogen peroxide to make it appear fresh and edible. Smugglers often buy the meat at low prices in foreign countries and move it into China through Vietnam.

"To save costs, smugglers often hire ordinary vehicles instead of refrigerated ones, so the meat has often thawed out several times before reaching customers," Yang Bo, a deputy director of an anti-smuggling bureau for a regional customs office, told China Daily.

Without inspection, the meat products rot and pose a significant health risk, Yang said.