Daqing Morning Post report: A couple from Lixin County not only sold pig blood as duck blood, but also, in order to make the pig blood look better and shinier, they disregarded the safety of consumers' lives and added industrial formaldehyde to the pig blood. They produced more than 10 tons of pig blood and sold it as duck blood. All of these more than 10 tons of formaldehyde-laden pig blood were sold to the public through local markets. It wasn't until September 2011 when a member of the public reported them to the industry and commerce department that the case came to light.
Recently, the Lixin County People's Procuratorate legally approved the arrest of the suspects Mr. Liu and his wife on suspicion of producing and selling toxic and harmful food.
In November 2009, Mr. Liu and his wife started their business processing pig blood. At the time, the pig blood processed by Mr. Liu did not have a good color.
It was not until July or August 2010 when Mr. Liu went to the Hengsheng Factory in the county to contact pig blood suppliers that he met a friend named Mr. Li.
Mr. Li told Mr. Liu that if you put cooked pig blood into water with added formaldehyde and then take it out again, the pig blood will not only look better in color but also be less prone to spoilage. After returning home, Mr. Liu followed this method.
Starting from October 2010, Mr. Liu sourced pig blood from the "Hengsheng Pig Slaughterhouse" and the "Kailida Meat Processing Plant" in the county. The price for the pig blood from one pig was 1.5 yuan, and each pig could yield six to seven catties (approximately 3-4 kg) of blood, which was then sold at 0.8 yuan per catty after processing.
Mr. Liu was able to produce over a thousand catties of pig blood daily, earning more than three hundred yuan a day. The produced pig blood, due to its shiny appearance, was sold as duck blood. He successively sold more than 10 tons of formaldehyde-laden pig blood to various markets in the county town and rural towns.
On September 19, 2011, based on a public tip-off, the staff of the County Administration for Industry and Commerce sampled and tested the pig blood being sold by vendors Mr. Li and Ms. Su at the Xinqiao Market in Chengguantown of the county.
Upon testing, it was found that the semi-finished pig blood contained formaldehyde components, leading to the discovery of Mr. Liu and his wife's case of producing and selling toxic and harmful food.