Local government officials in Shanghai asked people in some neighbourhoods to throw away food provided by the government after residents complained of quality issues. These included complaints of moldy food and issues with packaging. The low quality of the food caused a public outcry.
Shanghai is currently facing worst outbreak of Covid. A lockdown is in effect.
Officials in at least two districts in Shanghai’s east issued warnings to residents about moldy braised duck and meatballs and issues with packaging of food proivided by the government, reported news network Bloomberg.
Some residents reportedly complained of stomach ache and diarrhea after consuming food they received on April 21. The issue was also discussed on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like social media network. People vented their anger. Bloomberg reported that a hashtag demanding probe for what happened in Shanghai got more than 100 million views.
Many of the city’s residents have been confined to their homes since March, with some flooding social media with complaints of food shortages, spartan quarantine conditions and heavy-handed enforcement.
Protest footage has circulated faster than government censors can delete it.
Chinese officials have scrambled in recent weeks to contain an outbreak spanning multiple regions, largely driven by the fast-spreading Omicron variant.
(With inputs from agencies)
