China Sentences 113 Involved in Tainted Pork Scandal

BEIJINGChina penalized 113 people, including 17 government employees, over a March 2011 chemical-tainted pork scandal that once again brought to light the countrys struggle with food safety issues, reported the state-run Xinhua news agency. The scandal came just a few years after the 2008 melamine scandal that sickened thousands, killed at least six children and nearly destroyed Chinas dairy industry.

Last March, 19 pigs in central China's Henan Province tested positive for the banned additive clenbuterol. The investigation revealed that from 2007 to March 2011 the two associates sold more than  2,700 kilograms of clenbuterol, which increases muscle mass in livestock, to pork farmers across eight provinces in China. The pork was then sold to a subsidiary company of Shuanghui Group, Chinas largest meat processor.

The  punishments varied from jail terms to reprieved death penalty. The main offender, Liu Xiang, was sentenced to death with two years reprieve on conviction of harming public safety. Liu's clandestine workshop producing clenbuterol was seized in Henan's Xiangyang city on March 25, 10 days after he was prosecuted. Liu's collaborator, Xi Zhongjie, was sentenced to life.

Government employees involved in the scandal, including animal health inspectors and food safety officials, received between three and nine years in jail for negligence of duty and power abuse.

Clenbuterol is used in animal feed to increase muscle mass in livestock. There have been several outbreaks of acute illness in Spain, France, Italy, China and Portugal after consumers ate meat containing clenbuterol residues. Symptoms included increased heart rate, nervousness, headache, muscular tremor, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, fever and chills, typically resolved within two to six days.\