New | Stiff drink: Two Chinese firms probed for spiking alcohol with Viagra
Guangxi distillers may have added the impotence treatment drug to their alcohol
Chinese police have opened an investigation into whether two distillers in China's southwestern Guangxi province added impotence treatment drug Viagra to their liquor in the country's latest food-safety scare.
The Liuzhou Food and Drug Administration said it found that Guikun Alcohol Plant and Deshun Alcohol Plant in the provincial city of Liuzhou were putting sildenafil - more commonly known as Viagra - into three of their baijiu products. Baijiu is a fiery grain liquor that commands high prices in China.
Law enforcement officers confiscated 5,357 bottles of the suspect products, 1,124 kg of raw alcohol and a batch of white powder labelled sildenafil, in a case that involved more than 700,000 yuan (HK$872,000), according to a statement that the administration posted on its website on Saturday.
The case had been transferred to the police, it said, adding that the baijiu products had all been marketed as having health-preserving qualities.
Food safety is a chronic problem in China, and public anxiety over cases of fake or toxic food often spreads quickly.
In June, state media reported that Chinese customs had seized around 3 billion yuan worth of smuggled meat - some more than 40 years old and rotting - in the latest in a grim series of food safety scares across the country.