China jails six for selling chemical-tainted pork

BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese court has jailed six people for producing and selling chemical-tainted pork, state media said on Wednesday, the latest ruling in a food safety scandal.

The butchers in the east of the country were convicted of "harming public safety" for producing and selling pork tainted with clenbuterol, a toxic chemical used to produce lean meat, the official Xinhua news agency reported, citing a court ruling.

The six were given terms of up to four years in prison by the court in Nanjing on December 13, it added.

"The six butchers, who worked at a Nanjing slaughter house, admitted they had bought live pigs from central Henan Province, slaughtered and sold the pork earlier this year, even though they knew the pork had been tainted by clenbuterol," Xinhua said.

"All six butchers signed contracts with the slaughterhouse in March 2009, vowing they would not sell clenbuterol-tainted pork."

They were also fined up to 50,000 yuan ($7,900).

Several others, including government officials, are still being tried in Nanjing, Xinhua added.

Lean meat sells for a premium in China, the world's largest producer and consumer of pork, which spurs some farmers to resort to using clenbuterol.

If eaten excessively by humans, however, the chemical can lead to muscle tremors, dizziness, headaches and gastric irritations.

The pork case first came to light in March, and since then at least 113 people have been jailed.

China is no stranger to food safety scares, including one involving tainted milk, despite repeated government campaigns to crack down on the problem and tough punishments handed out to those involved.

In 2008, at least six children died and nearly 300,000 fell ill from drinking milk made from powder laced with melamine, an industrial compound added to milk and milk power to give misleadingly high results in protein tests.