Unscrupulous greed taints pork products with virus

IN A NEWS CONFERENCE ON FRIDAY, the Ministry of Public Security said that police nationwide have so far prevented more than 140 tons of pork or pork products carrying African swine virus from entering the market and detained 90 criminal suspects in 32 criminal cases. Beijing News comments:

Despite the government's close oversight, the virus entered Northeast China's Liaoning province in August, and it has since spread to 28 out of the country's 34 provincial-level regions.

Although the virus is killed in cooking, it can live for decades in frozen pork. The food safety, agricultural and market regulation departments have no reason to look on with folded arms when the virus enters the humans' food chain. Which has regretfully happened, as frozen meat balls, sausages and dumplings produced by a handful of big-name food companies have been found containing the virus in many places.