Opium Poppies (Photo : Nutritiionfacts.org)
Investigators from the China Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are asking local authorities to help them find sources of poppies after the agency found 35 restaurants serving opium poppies as seasoning. Even if poppy powder has small amounts of opiates, it is still prohibited as a food additive in China.
As a result of the discovery, the FDA prosecuted five restaurants and is still investigating the 30 other dining establishments. BBC identified Beijing-based Huda Restaurant, a popular food chain, as one of the 35 restaurants investigated for using opium poppies.
Hu Ling, general manager of Huda, admitted the FDA has investigated the establishment. But she said that the restaurant possibly purchased seasoning without knowing it contains opiates.
The addictive seasoning is used on various restaurant fare such as grilled fish, noodles, fried chicken and hotpot. The FDA said it found morphine and codeine, which are poppy derivatives, in the seasoning. CNN pointed out that it is not uncommon among Chinese cooks to sprinkle powdered poppy on their food, but it is unclear if the practice causes opium addiction among diners.
In 2014, police arrested a noodle vendor and detained him for 10 days for spiking his noodle dishes with poppy. Some of his customers kept coming back, including a 26-year-old male driver whose car was stopped. When the driver was tested for drugs, the police discovered he ate a bowl of noodles which eventually led to the arrest of the vendor.
Past investigation by the FDA for opium poppies resulted in the closure in 2012 of seven restaurants in Ningxia Province and 215 dining establishments in 2004 in Guizhou Province.
