Crackdown on pretend Kobe beef

Shanghai says no evidence exists to show that delicacy is being sold in municipality

The food safety watchdog of Shanghai vowed to crack down on unqualified meat after inspectors found that the costly Kobe beef sold by some Japanese restaurants turned out to be locally grown or imported from Australia.

In a telephone interview with China Daily on Monday, the Shanghai Municipal Food Safety Commission Office director Yan Zuqiang said there is no evidence that Kobe beef, a delicacy produced in Japan's Hyogo Prefecture but banned from being imported to China because of mad cow disease, is being served or consumed in the city.