Unregistered Guangzhou Factory Produces Filthy Chicken Parts

Unregistered Guangzhou Factory Produces Filthy Chicken Parts
8/2/2007
Updated:
8/2/2007

TAIPEI—Enforcement officials from the Guangzhou Municipal Bureau of Industry and Commerce recently uncovered serious food safety violations at an underground poultry processing factory. Sanitation conditions inside the factory were appalling. Inspectors found chicken parts covered in mud and other foul materials.

The factory, unpermitted and previously uninspected, processed hundreds of kilograms of chicken parts daily for local restaurants and supermarkets. The factory was often unable to keep up with demand.

According to the Hong Kong’s Sing Pao Daily News, the factory was divided into an outside room and an inside room. In the outside room, partially defrosted chicken parts were piled up directly on the floor. A worker peeled blood-stained ice off the chicken parts and then threw them back into a small pool on the floor containing a mixture of blood and water.

The floor, which had at one time been paved with white tiles, was now in very poor condition, at least half the floor tiles were missing. Chicken parts were thrown directly onto the floor. The unsanitary mixture of chicken parts, blood, water, mud and cement would cause concern to any observer.

At the entrance to the inside room there were several large white plastic buckets with something brown surrounding their rims. Flies buzzed constantly over these buckets. Inside, a worker was busy with his chores, oblivious to the various dirty liquids which flowed from the room.

According to the owner of a nearby roadside vending cart, the factory has been operating for three years. It processes hundreds of kilograms of chicken parts each day. Each half-kilogram of chicken parts is worth somewhere between 15 yuan (US$1.98) and 25 yuan ($3.3). He also said that the factory was doing such a brisk business that it could not keep up with demand.

A delivery man was interviewed at the factory when he arrived to pick up an order. According to him, because of the recent hot weather, such cold appetizers were selling very well. He has recently picked up orders at the factory nearly every day.