Snack shop owner in China poisons food in rival’s store, causing 10 people to become ill, say local police
- Police identified the alleged culprit with surveillance footage from victim’s shop, installed after previous poisoning attempt
- Sodium nitrite can cause headaches, dizziness, stomach ache, nausea, fainting, difficulty breathing and, in some cases, death
A snack shop owner in eastern China has been detained for allegedly poisoning food products sold by a competitor, leaving at least 10 people ill.
The unnamed man who runs a snack store in Zhejiang province in eastern China was apprehended by police after an outbreak of poisonings in June at a nearby store owned by a woman, Jimu News reported.
A customer, surnamed Li, bought rolled meat cakes from her shop on June 13, and after eating the snacks Li and nine others all became dizzy and vomited afterwards.
Suspecting poisoning, Li called the police, and an investigation revealed the group had been poisoned with sodium nitrite. This industrial chemical can cause headaches, dizziness, vomiting, fainting, difficulty breathing and, in some cases, death if ingested in sufficient quantities.
Police identified the accused after checking footage from a surveillance camera in the woman’s snack shop, which she installed after discovering a previous poisoning attempt and suspected it was the rival store owner.
“He [the suspect] is about 30 to 40 years old and operates a store nearby. I think he wished to handle all the business orders in our county,” the unidentified woman shop owner told Jimu News.
“I didn’t expect he would dare to try a second time. He shouldn’t do that. Business should be done through fair competition.”
The woman said she had been forced to discard and replace any food products that may have been affected.
Food safety scares and hygiene scandals are common in mainland China.
Earlier this month, a 35-year-old woman was arrested for adding dish water and detergent to the complimentary soup served at a restaurant in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou.
Last week, the market supervision authority in eastern China’s Zhejiang province shut down a store selling boiled peanuts after a customer found a mouse head.
In June, a similar incident occurred in a college canteen in eastern China where a student found a mouse head in a dish. The provincial investigation team confirmed it was a rodent two weeks after local inspectors claimed it was a piece of duck neck, causing a public backlash after images of the mouse head circulated online.
