Yuck! Chinese Authorities Bust Crime Ring That Passed Off Rat Meat As Mutton

Authorities in China smelled a rat — or several thousand tons of rat.

Chinese police have busted a $1 million crime ring that was allegedly passing off the meat of rodents and other small animals as mutton.



In total, more than 900 suspects have been arrested this year alone for selling tainted or fake meat products, adding to a long list of hazardous food practices that range from butchering cats to pass as poultry to thousands of dead pigs dumped in a river outside of Shanghai.

More than 20,000 tons of counterfeit meat was seized in the raid, according to a release from China's Ministry of Public Security.

Suspects in eastern China allegedly purchased fox, mink and rat meat and passed it off as lamb.



It remains unclear where the smugglers got the meat in the first place.

The fake products had been treated to more closely resemble lamb, and were doused in gelatin and pigmented to mask their true forms, The New York Times reported.

Shanghai police, in an effort to show greater transparency, warned diners to look out for tell-tale signs of imitation meat.



"In fake lamb, it is easy to pull apart the fat from the red meat. In real lamb, the fat is difficult to separate," they wrote on Sina Weibo, China's equivalent to Twitter.



Yuck!!!!!




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