Meat packaged 40 years ago confiscated in China

CHANGSHA, China, June 25 (UPI) -- Meat that was packaged as the Cultural Revolution rocked China and communist forces toppled Saigon was found in a stack of smuggled frozen foods in China's Hunan province.

The 40-year-old meat consisted of poultry and beef of unknown origin, The New York Times reported Wednesday. The contraband was estimated to be worth half a billion dollars, according to Chinese authorities, who found the illegal meat in a nationwide crackdown that covered 14 provinces and regions, according to Chinese state news agency Xinhua.

Authorities uncovered a total of 800 tons of illegal meat products that were headed for restaurants and grocery stores in Hunan, according to CNN.

Some of the meat was headed for online sales. Meat retailers on China's Taobao platform claimed the beef they were selling was from the United States, despite a China ban on U.S. beef since 2003.

Xinhua quoted a Chinese customs official who came across the stomach-churning contraband.

Zhang Tao of Changsha in Hunan province said, "It was too smelly. A truck full of it. I almost threw up when the door opened."

The discovery of the meat on June 1 has been followed by the arrest of 20 suspected members of two gangs who reportedly smuggled the meat across the border with Vietnam.

It was unclear how the meat had been stored for two generations, but authorities confirmed the meat had to be refrozen multiple times because it thawed while being transported in ordinary vehicles.

The Chinese public is no stranger to food scandals that have included rat meat being sold as lamb to tainted milk powder that caused illness in 300,000 babies in 2008 and the death of six.