By SCOTT McDONALD
The Associated Press
Friday, June 22, 2007; 3:39 PM
BEIJING -- The Chinese government warned Friday that some of the country's markets were selling tainted meat and threatened tough punishment against those behind the practice.
China is fighting to overcome intense international criticism for exporting unsafe products _ from tainted pet food to popular children's toys made with lead paint _ ahead of next summer's Olympic Games in Beijing.
"Recently, the illegal selling of pork from pigs which died of disease was discovered in some parts of the country," the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said in a notice posted on its Web site.
The agency did not give specific examples, but reports of people becoming sick after eating tainted or poisoned food occur almost daily in China.
Anyone caught selling the tainted meat would be "severely dealt with," the agency said.
The notice also said meat that had been injected with water was being sold in China's markets.
Pork prices have jumped by more than 40 percent over the past year, partly due to a shortage caused by the spread of blue-ear disease. The ailment, also called porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome, does not affect people but can be fatal for pigs.
China's government says the disease has killed at least 18,000 pigs. Premier Wen Jiabao appeared on national television last month to assure the government is tackling the problem, but many farmers have stopped raising pigs, authorities say.
Chinese-made toothpaste has been rejected by several countries from Latin America to Asia, while Chinese wheat gluten tainted with the chemical melamine was blamed for dog and cat deaths in North America.
Other products turned away by U.S. inspectors include toxic monkfish, frozen eel and juice made with unsafe color additives.
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission last week announced a voluntary recall of dozens of Thomas & Friends Wooden Railway Toys. Some of the wildly popular toy train sets _ a spinoff from the British television series for youngsters _ were manufactured in southern China and contained potentially poisonous lead paint.
Another case unfolded earlier this week after a company was found reusing the filling from two-year-old rice dumplings. Officials in Anhui province ordered a recall of all "zongzi" _ a traditional snack made of glutinous rice and other fillings usually wrapped in bamboo leaves _ made by the manufacturer.
