A Sichuan man has been detained in connection with the contamination of preserved vegetables with pesticides and industrial chemicals.
The Chengdu Bureau of Quality and Technical Supervision detained Xiong Xiaobing , a factory owner from Pengzhou, an area famous for producing preserved vegetables.
More than 100 tonnes of preserved vegetables were seized and destroyed from two workshops, one owned by Mr Xiong. Samples of the destroyed vegetables were taken for tests and the results would be available in about three days, a spokesman for the Bureau of Quality and Technical Supervision said.
News of the scandal emerged at the weekend when China Central Television reported that workers in a Chengdu factory were mixing massive amounts of the preservative sodium benzoate into preserved vegetables. The amount of the chemical being used at the factory was six times above the national standard.
Workers at another factory were shown spraying industrial salt on to cabbage. The salt packages were labelled 'cannot be eaten'.
Experts said the chemicals were all carcinogenic. But officials said improper use of the substances was not widespread. 'Only very few workshops - they are not even up to standard to be called factories - were involved in the primary production and they were mostly in remote areas,' one official said.