Out-of-date supplies

A senior official at the administration's anti-smuggling department, who declined to give his name, said that most of the smuggled meat comes from abroad, including the United States and some European countries.

"In order to make large profits, suspects in the US colluded with their associates in China, and the gang members assumed different tasks to form a complete and secret supply chain, including offering supplies, smuggling, transportation, storage, manufacturing and sales," he said.

Zhang Tao, a senior official at the anti-smuggling bureau of the Changsha Administration of Customs, said smugglers usually purchase the frozen meat for very low prices in foreign countries, including the US, and send it to Hong Kong in refrigerated containers.

The products are then transported via Vietnam to Chinese border areas in Yunnan province and the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region where the consignments are divided up and processed before being delivered to restaurants and snack booths, he said.

"The frozen meat is moved under poor conditions, repeatedly thawed or even refrozen after it has already gone bad, which poses a serious threat to people's health," he said.

According to the general administration, some of the confiscated meat is much older than their expiration dates suggest, with some being more than 40 years old.

Gao Guan, deputy secretary-general of the China Meat Association, said many countries freeze and store meat to maintain strategic reserves and keep prices stable.