Dark side of China’s food and drug industry

1 Jun 2007, Jiangsu Province: Toothpaste exported to Latin America found to contain diethylene glycol – chemical used in anti-freeze

2 Sep 2008, Hebei Province: Baby formula laced with melamine – to make milk appear to have higher protein content – kills six babies and sickens 300,000 others

3-6 Feb 2011, Hebei, Shanxi, Shandong, Zhejiang: Milk producers switch from using melamine to adding chemical waste from tanning industry. Waste includes leather proteins, chromium, sodium and potassium dichromate

7 Mar 2011, Henan: Hundreds of people hospitalized after pig farmers feed animals with steroid clenbuterol to speed up muscle growth and produce leaner pork

8 Apr, Liaoning:  Forty tonnes of bean sprouts found to be treated with carcinogenic chemicals

9 Apr, Guangdong: Officials seize 16 tonnes of pork tainted with sodium borate. Illegal additive is used to make pork look like beef, which sells at higher price

10-12 Apr-Sep 2011, Chongqing, Shanghai, Zhejiang: Officials seize so-called gutter oil – filtered waste from restaurant drains sold as cooking oil

13-14 Mar 2013, Shanghai, Zhejiang: More than 11,000 dead pigs found in Shanghai’s Huangpu river, thousands more found in Zhejiang

15 Jan 2014, Shandong: Walmart recalls its Five Spice donkey meat after tests find product contains DNA of fox meat

16 Jul, Shanghai: Husi Food found to be selling expired chicken and beef to McDonald’s and KFC

17 Jan 2015, Shanghai: More than 110 people arrested, suspected of selling $16 million of pork from pigs that died from disease

CHINA
TAIWAN
SOUTH
KOREA
MONGOLIA

Beijing
Shanghai
Jinan 
Hong Kong

250 miles
400km

Sources: Shanghai Securities News, China News Service, Wall Street Journal, American Chemical Society
Pictures: Associated Press, Getty Images, chinasmack.com