BEIJING (Reuters) - China warned consumers on Monday to be wary of eating dumplings served by millions of families during the annual Dragon Boat Festival, saying they may be poisonous.
The glutinous rice dumplings, or "zongzi," are wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves and shaped like pyramids, but some unscrupulous manufacturers are using copper-based chemicals to keep the leaves green, the China Daily said.
"The leaves dyed by copper sulphate or copper chloride contain metal elements which will penetrate into the zongzi and cause great damage to the health," food expert Shen Xiangkun was quoted as saying, backing a warning by the China Consumer Association.
Food safety is a recurring problem in China where recent scares have included hazardous fast-food containers, chemicals in fish and fake milk powder which led to the death of at least 13 Chinese babies from malnutrition in 2004.
A random study in Yuyao, in eastern China, found the problem of dyeing zongzi was widespread ahead of Wednesday's Dragon Boat Festival.
"The worst zongzi contained 34 times more copper than the national standard," the newspaper said.
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