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Health in China
ChinaPeople & Culture

Wuhan sacks officials after pork deliveries are tipped into street from back of rubbish truck

  • Two Wuhan officials fired, one under investigation, and local government workers go door-to-door to apologise after residents rage at sloppy food handling
  • Authorities destroy tainted portions and promise ‘safe and clean’ deliveries

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Residents in Wuhan say pork portions from government stores were tipped from a dirty rubbish truck onto the street before being distributed for human consumption. Photo: Weibo
Mandy Zuo
Two officials in the Chinese city of Wuhan were sacked and another was under investigation after government staff used a rubbish truck to ship a consignment of pork for human consumption, local authorities said.
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Residents in the Yuanlin community of Qingshan district were outraged when the pork they bought from government stores arrived in the vehicle on Wednesday.

The meat, packed in plastic bags containing 1,000 portions, was tipped onto the ground and then handed out to customers, according to residents who complained about tainted food on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like microblogging service.

In one widely shared photo, the bags were shown being dumped from a battered and dirty truck onto a large plastic sheet on the ground. In another, several workers stepped onto the sheet to count the bags.

Food supplies have largely been controlled by the government since Wuhan, the city in central Hubei province at the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak, was locked down in late January.
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Residents remained under quarantine and new cases, which hit nearly 4,000 a day in mid-February, fell to eight on Wednesday.

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