“How many rats does it take to put together a sheep?”

Could you tell the difference between lamb meat and rat meat? The New York Times reports that

Even for China’s scandal-numbed diners, inured to endless outrages about food hazards, news that the lamb simmering in the pot may actually be rat tested new depths of disgust. The police (in China) arrested 904 people suspected of selling fake, diseased, toxic or adulterated meat, and broke up 1,721 illicit factories, workshops and shops. Yet the ministry acknowledged that diners still had reason to worry.

Residents of Shanghai recently endured the sight of thousands of dead hogs floating down a nearby river, apparently the dumped victims of disease in piggeries upstream.

In addition,

“For example, there is selling of meat injected with water and meat from animals dead from disease, as well as passing off relatively cheap types of meat as relatively expensive beef and mutton.”

China may have some problems in its meat industry.

The cases described included a company in Inner Mongolia, a northeast region of China, caught with 23 tons of fake beef jerky and unprocessed frozen meat adulterated with flavoring chemicals and swarming with bacteria. Six suspects in Guizhou Province, in southwest China, were caught with 8.8 tons of “toxic chicken feet” marinated in a hydrogen peroxide solution and adulterated with illegal additives. Chicken feet, steamed or boiled with spices, are a popular dish in parts of China.

Such problems “seriously affect social harmony and stability, and seriously harm the image of the party and government,” the court said in a statement issued by state-run media.