Some 800 tonnes of smuggled frozen meat have been seized by Chinese customs officials including one batch dating from the 1970s.
The meat was bound for restaurants, retailers and supermarkets in Hunan province, where it was found, and other Chinese provinces and major cities, according to a report from Xinhua, China's state news agency, on Tuesday.
The meat, which included poultry and beef, was confiscated on June 1 and was worth 10 million yuan ($1.6 million), the English-language China Daily said.Some packages were rotten and others were around 40 years old -- packed and stamped at the height of China's Cultural Revolution.
"The products fully filled an entire compartment. It was really smelly, and I nearly threw up when I opened the door," the China Daily quoted Zhang Tao, a local official, as saying.
CNN contacted customs authorities in Changsha, the provincial capital of Hunan, which said that local media reports on the meat seizures were correct but declined to give further details.
