Five held over sale of industrial salt for table
Five people have been detained for selling 1,600 tonnes of industrial salt as table salt in Nanjing . More than half the salt has already been distributed and sold in three provinces.
Authorities seized 300 tonnes of industrial salt as it entered the city on May 20.
Before the seizure, the detainees had sold 1,270 tonnes since February. Of the 1,270 tonnes, 240 tonnes were still in Nanjing but 1,030 tonnes of the industrial salt had been distributed as table salt to markets in more than 10 cities in Anhui , Henan and northern Jiangsu provinces, according to a Wen Wei Po report yesterday.
The cities included Xuzhou , Suqian and Huaian in Jiangsu, and Fuyang and Luan in Anhui.
The discovery in Nanjing came amid mainland authorities' increased efforts to crack down on substandard and fake food products and medicines following a spate of incidents.
With help from other salt bureau offices elsewhere, authorities from the Nanjing Salt Affairs Bureau have visited different cities and counties in the three provinces searching for the industrial salt - which contains many cancer-causing agents. Industrial salt is used to make products including soap, plastics and explosives.
The Nanjing Salt Affairs Bureau was quoted as saying that it would be difficult to trace the 1,030 tonnes of the salt because it probably had been used since it was distributed so long ago.
Meanwhile, the Qinyuan City Administration for Industry and Commerce in Guangdong raided an underground factory which used old rice for making vermicelli.
A CCTV report did not identify the factory where the raid occurred, but it reported that workers were found pouring rice bags - labelled 'industrial rice' - into the container making vermicelli. The authorities found 20 tonnes of the rice - which could only be used for making industrial alcohol, soap and fertilisers.
