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China Caught Smugglers Trying to Sell Meat from the 1970s

The really old meat had been frozen, thawed, and refrozen again during its trek from places like Brazil and India through neighboring countries and into the bellies of unsuspecting consumers.

Meat photo via Flickr user Paul Joseph

BBC reports that Chinese authorities seized over 100,000 tons of meat from smugglers in the Hunan province, some dating back to the Carter Administration, as part of a nationwide crackdown on poor food standards. The estimated $438 million worth of flesh—which had been frozen, thawed, and refrozen again during its trek from places like Brazil and India through neighboring countries and into the bellies of unsuspecting consumers—included beef, chick feet, and duck necks.

While Chinese anti-smuggling authorities are investigating 21 gangs, having already arrested 20 people in the Hunan province alone, this seizure coincides with news of a Chinese food safety watchdog urging the Shaanxi province to order a recall on three milk producers in the area, after finding a curiously high amount of nitrate levels in infant formula powders.

Food standard issues are nothing new to the country that engineers genius babies and uses the black market to coax white English speakers to come teach. Back in 2008, Chinese milk producers released a product contaminated by melamine, killing six kids and leaving some 300,000 others ill—and there's also that whole dog meat festival thing.

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