Police recently seized 34 suspects and destroyed over 40 tons of poisonous fake mutton made from cheaper duck meat and illegal chemicals in northeast China's Liaoning Province, reports the Beijing Times.

Fake poisonous mutton. [Photo/Beijing Times]

The suspects used large amount of chemicals, dye and adhesive as well as imported mutton grease from New Zealand to make the duck meat taste like mutton and to endure the high temperature of hotpot cooking. The fake mutton was sold at less than 20 yuan per kilogram while real mutton costs 40 to 60 yuan.

The fake mutton was found to also contain excessive amounts of heavy metals and cancer-causing sodium nitrite that exceeded the national food standard by more than 2,000 times.

The suspects have sold more than 1000 kilograms of such meat to small and medium hotpot restaurants and wholesale distributors in Northeast China. Right now the poisonous meat is not found sold in Beijing.