Chinese police bust million-dollar rat-meat ring

Chinese police havebroken a crime ring that passed off more than $1 million in rat and smallmammal meat as mutton, authorities said, in a food safety crackdown thatcoincides with a bird flu outbreak and other environmental pressures.

Authorities have arrested904 suspects since the end of January for selling and producing fake or taintedmeat products, the Ministry of Public Security said in a statement posted on its website onThursday.

During the crackdown, policediscovered one suspect surnamed Wei who had used additives to spice up and sellrat, fox and mink meat at markets in Shanghai and Jiangsu province.

Police arrested 63 suspectsconnected to the crime ring in a case valued at more than 10 million yuan insales since 2009.

Despite persistent effortsby police, "food safety crimes are still prominent, and new situations areemerging with new characteristics", the ministry's statement said, citing"responsible officials".

Police confiscated morethan 20,000 tonnes of fake or inferior meat products after breaking up illegalfood plants during the nationwide operation, the ministry said.

Food safety andenvironmental pollution are chronic problems in China and public anxiety overcases of fake or toxic food often spreads quickly.

In April, many consumerslost their appetite for poultry as an outbreak of the H7N9 bird flu virusspread in China. Sales dropped by 80 percent in eastern China, where the birdflu has been most prevalent, although experts stress that cooked chicken isperfectly safe.

In March, more than 16,000rotting pigs were found floating in one of Shanghai's main water sources,triggering a public outcry. Over-crowding at pig farms was likely behind thedie-off and their disposal in the Huangpu river.

The public securityministry said police had confiscated more than 15 tonnes of tainted pork inAnhui province, although as much as 60 tonnes had been sold in Anhui and Fujianprovinces since mid-2012.

But it was the rodent meatin particular that people couldn't stomach, with Internet users turning to thepopular microblogging site Sina Weibo to vent their outrage.

"Rats? How disgusting.Everything we eat is poison," one user wrote.