Illegal offal vendors defy district officials
Print Edition
ILLEGAL pig offal vendors are giving environmental officials the runaround because they set up shop on a bridge on the border between two districts.
As the market is on Huajiang Bridge on the border of Minhang and Jiading districts, there is confusion over which district should be responsible for it, reported Labor Daily yesterday.
And when there is a crackdown, stallholders usually make a quick getaway when law enforcement officers arrive, returning after they leave.
Now the Shanghai Food and Drug Administration is investigating the market amid food safety fears.
Pig offal sold without inspection presents risks from pesticide residue, excessive heavy metal, viruses and bacteria, said officials.
Shanghai has ruled since 2008 that all pig organs should be sold in licensed markets, but dozens of people sell offal on the 100-meter bridge most days.
Some use the back of minivans as makeshift stalls, while some others haul basins of pig livers, kidneys, stomachs and intestines onto the walkway.
Most of the vans do not have cold storage facilities, and in high summer the stench from the illegal market can be overpowering, said the newspaper.
But customers are attracted by the low prices. A pig liver costs about 4 yuan (65 US cents), compared to 15 to 16 yuan per kilogram at licensed markets.
Vendors say their prices are cheap because they buy directly from slaughterhouses and because they don’t have inspection and quarantine certificates.
They said customers are mainly restaurants and construction site canteens.
A director of a nearby licensed wholesale market said most stallholders moved from the Cao’an Market in Putuo District when the famous agricultural products wholesale market was closed for relocation last year. Others are from Zhongjiang Road in Putuo, where the trade also takes place.
Insiders said vendors buy the offal from small slaughterhouses in Shanghai and neighboring Jiangsu Province.
It is unknown what quantity of offal is sold around Huangjiang Bridge, but Minhang officials confiscated 1.2 tons in a single raid in April, said Labor Daily.
Officials said only joint action by both districts can solve the problem and that regular patrols should be deployed.
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