Food's protective fence should be stronger still

It is unbelievable but true: 800 tons of smuggled frozen meat that customs officers uncovered had been kept in storage for as long as 40 years. The meat, including beef, duck necks and chicken feet, is definitely unhealthy to eat, but it was meant to sneak its way onto the dining tables of Chinese consumers.

The inedible meat was intercepted in Changsha, capital of Hunan province, Central China. While we are obliged to the customs officers who blocked such unhealthy food from ending up on our dining tables, the fear that some of the meat or similar inedible food stuffs may have been sneaked past customs somewhere sends chills down our spine.

The meat joins the long list of unsafe foods uncovered in recent years, which includes baby formula with melamine, duck eggs poisoned by toxic additive of Sudan III, sausages made of pork from sick pigs, seafood soaked in chemicals and cooking oil recycled from swill oil.