900 tons seized! All fake! Many people have bought and eaten online

Recently, after careful investigation, the Mianyang police in Sichuan organized police forces to travel to Sichuan, Shandong, Henan and other places, and successfully cracked a case of producing and selling fake beef. 11 criminal suspects were arrested, and more than 900 tons of fake beef frozen products were seized. Several black industrial chains from offline counterfeiting to online network platform sales were cut off, and the amount involved in the case was more than 35 million yuan.

In March 2022, the market supervision and management department of Beichuan Qiang Autonomous County, Mianyang, Sichuan received complaints from many people, saying that the beef rolls they bought online had quality problems, tasted and looked different from beef, and some products had an odor. On April 25 of the same year, after receiving the case clues transferred to them, the Beichuan Public Security Bureau of Mianyang, Sichuan, jointly with the Food, Drug and Environmental Investigation Brigade of the Mianyang Municipal Public Security Bureau and the market supervision department conducted an investigation and found that there may be a black chain of production and sales of "problematic beef" in Sichuan, Shandong and other places.

The Public Security Bureau of Mianyang City, Sichuan Province immediately reported the case to the superior public security organs, and set up a joint task force with the Food, Drug and Environmental Investigation Detachment of the Municipal Bureau and the police officers of Beichuan Public Security Bureau as the main force. Under the guidance of the Food, Drug and Environmental Investigation Corps of the Provincial Public Security Department, a special case investigation was carried out, code-named "4.25". The task force sent the various beef products collected to professional testing departments for meat source identification. Among them, a certain brand of beef rolls sent by the task force for inspection were all detected to be duck-derived, confirming that duck meat was mixed into its beef products, which were counterfeit products. During their work, the police of the task force found that the brand of beef products were sold at low prices online and offline, in huge quantities, and were even hyped by some online platforms as "high-quality and low-priced" best-selling products, which seriously damaged the interests of consumers.

After more than two months of continuous efforts, the task force has figured out the fake beef production chain and dens across Sichuan, Shandong, Henan and other places, and locked in a counterfeiting gang of more than 10 people headed by Xie Moumou. They have sorted out the flow of funds involved in the case from hundreds of thousands of consumers to e-commerce platforms and finally into dozens of bank cards, Alipay accounts, and WeChat accounts of suspects. The main suspects and production dens have been closely monitored and staked out. An invisible net is tightening.

On June 24, 2022, the task force arrested eight suspects including Xie in Chengdu and Jianyang, Sichuan; in August 2022, another three suspects were arrested in Binzhou, Shandong and Luohe, Henan. The roundup operation seized more than 900 tons of fake frozen beef products with a large amount of duck meat, more than 20 bank cards involved in the case, three counterfeiting dens and eight counterfeiting production lines, and the amount involved reached 35 million yuan. The "4.25" case was solved, and the criminal gang headed by Xie was caught in one fell swoop.

The task force then dispatched police forces to many places across the country and collected a large amount of evidence. In January 2023, the case was transferred to the People's Court by the procuratorate and will be heard in court in the near future.

01

Why is beef so popular?

In the market, pork, chicken and duck meat are all very cheap, only about 10 yuan per pound, but the price of beef is several times that of these meats. If they are processed into beef, huge profits can be made. This is the "driving force" of beef fraud. Raw beef is generally difficult to fake, and it can be seen at a glance. It can only be "watered". Fake beef usually appears in foods such as steaks, beef rolls, braised beef, and beef balls. Because it has been reprocessed, it is difficult for ordinary people to distinguish.

02

How is fake beef made?

In order to imitate the color and taste of beef, pigments (nitrites, carmine, etc.), additives (beef cream, etc.), etc. are essential in the counterfeiting process.

Nitrite and carmine are widely used in industry and construction. They can also be used as food additives, but they must be used in limited quantities. They are carcinogens. Excessive use can cause poisoning or even death. They are mainly used as colorants and preservatives for meat products. They can react with myoglobin to form nitrosomyoglobin, which presents a rose color and enhances the color of meat, thus posing as beef.

Beef extract , also known as beef extract, is made by removing fat from fresh beef, digesting, filtering, and concentrating. It is brown or brown in color, has the aroma of beef, and turns light yellow when dissolved in water. With beef extract, pork can be turned into beef. It is a small matter to waste money. If these illegal vendors use additives in violation of regulations, just imagine what will happen if we eat it? So when buying beef, don't try to be cheap. Those particularly cheap beef products, such as braised beef and beef jerky, are definitely fake beef.

What should you do if a merchant uses fake beef to pass it off as real beef and sells it at a high price? Here are 3 tips to expose fake beef immediately so you won’t be fooled.

03

Tips for identifying fake beef

1. Look at the color

Among common meats, beef contains the most iron, so the color of beef is redder, belonging to dark red, but pork is generally bright red or pink, and chicken and duck are lighter in color. Cooked beef is generally brown, while fake beef made from pork is whitish after being cooked.

2. Look at the taste

The muscle fibers of beef are thicker than those of other meats, so the texture is rough and chewy. If the beef is not chewy, it is definitely fake.

3. Look at the price

Whether it is raw beef or cooked beef, the price will not be less than 40 yuan. If beef is sold for only 20 or 30 yuan per pound, the merchant may say "selling at a loss", which is a lie. Merchants only want to make more money, so why would they give back to consumers? So cheap beef is fake. There is another possibility, which is also real beef, but it may be diseased beef, so don't buy it.