The China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA) has issued a circular urging people not to eat the poisonous nassarius snails, said a report by state-based Xinhua News Agency.
The warning comes as peak sales season for edible snails has arrived, and the CFDA has learned that nassarius snails, which are characterized by their cuspate tails and slim body, are being sold in some markets.
According to the report, ingesting the snails can cause dizziness, nausea, numbness and, in worse cases, death. Currently, there is no effective medicine to cure nassarius snail poisoning, according to the CFDA.
The government reaffirmed in 2012 that trading nassarius snails is illegal and punishable by law. Now, the CFDA said it will intensify its market inspection drive to apprehend traders of the molluscs and discourage attempts to sell them.
The market for the snails is sizable in the coastal province of Zheijiang, Fujian and Guandong.
According to a Want China Times report in 2011, at least 48 people died between 1985 and 2008 from eating nassarius snails. In 2002, three people died in Fujian Province, and more than 50 people suffered from vomiting, headaches and fatigue after ingesting the snails.
The mortality rate of nassarius snail poisoning is 15 percent, according to What's on Xiamen.