China investigates liquor suppliers for Viagra in alcohol

Chinese police are investigating, if two distillers in the southwestern region of Guangxi added impotence treatment drug, Viagra, to their liquor in the latest food-safety scare in China.

The Liuzhou Food and Drug Administration said on Monday in Beijing that that it found the Guikun Alcohol Plant and the Deshun Alcohol Plant in Liuzhou were putting Sildenafil into three of their products.

Sildenafil is more commonly known as Viagra.

Liuzhou Food and Drug Administration said it has confiscated 5,357 bottles of the suspect products, 1,124 kg of raw alcohol and a batch of white powder labeled Sildenafil, in a case worth more than 112,726 dollars.

It said the case has been transferred to the police, because the products were all marketed as having health-preserving qualities.

Food safety is a chronic problem in China and public anxiety over cases of fake or toxic food often spreads quickly.

The administration said in June, state media said Chinese customs have seized around 483 million dollars worth of smuggled meat, some more than 40 years old and rotting.

It said this was the latest in a grim series of food safety scares.

In 2013, Chinese police said they broken a crime ring that passed off more than one million dollars in rat and small mammal meat as mutton.