Rat Meat Sold as Lamb Adds to Chinese Food Fears

BEIJING – First there were 20,000 dead pigs floating down the Huangpu River, a main source of water for Shanghai. That was followed by thousands of dead ducks in the Nanhe River in the southwest province of Sichuan.

Now the Ministry of Public Safety says today online that it has apprehended meat traders in eastern China who were passing rat off as lamb. The police took in 63 suspects accused in selling more than $1.6 million of rat as lamb.

Outrage on microblog Weibo questioned how such big business could be done without raising alarm bells.

Meat smuggling and food adulteration is rampant in China. In this case, the suspects are accused of using gelatin, red pigment and nitrates to alter the rat.

As Mao Shaolong, a professor at Remnin University in Beijing, told The New York Times, ”Chinese food production has become larger scale and more technological, but the problems emerging also involve using more sophisticated technology to beat regulators and cheat customers.”

Shanghai police have posted a lengthy explanation for how consumers can tell the difference between rat and lamb.

Tainted meats are an ongoing problem here. A consumer in Shaanxi province reportedly died after eating lamb doused in pesticide.

China’s government says it is making food safety a top priority in the first year of new president Xi Jinping’s leadership.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2013/05/rat-meat-sold-as-lamb-adds-to-chinese-food-fears/

 

Both meats in this explanation from Shanghai police looks the same. Is there an English translation? Can't tell the difference from the pics. The meat in the photos looks like those being sold at T&T for hot pot. Looks delicious at T&T.

 

Found a bigger version of the picture: http://ww2.sinaimg.cn/bmiddle/70856785jw1e4bfamfjf7j20c84zdttc.jpg

I don't see anything drastically different except in the third picture where the muscle bundles are smaller and more numerous in the bottom piece of meat. The differences are too subtle for it to be a useful guide if it's even real.

 

Here's a re-upload of the picture guide, I added very little English to it (enough to get what's going on). I'll read over the paragraph and give a rough summary later...
**Anyone who can help with translating, feel free too! Not guaranteed to be 100% right.

 

... do you eat rat meat as well as horse meat, cheeseshredder?

 

Seriously, whatever personal vendetta you have against me, grow up and move on. You're crazy bro.

 

... vendetta? talk about delusional. i'm just responding to a thread topic ...

 

Thanks for the bigger pic and translation (a bit hard to read the red letters though).