Food Safety Scandal: Shuanghui Apologizes After Pork Found With Antibiotics 38 Times Over Limit

Chinese meat processing giant Shuanghui Development issued a public apology today after a batch of pork produced by one of its subsidiaries in northeast China was found to contain excessive levels of the antibiotic lincomycin.

According to a food safety inspection notice released by market watchdog in Heilongjiang Province, a batch of "pork hind leg meat” produced by Shuanghui-controlled Wangkui Shuanghui Beidahuang Food contained 7,700 micrograms of lincomycin per kilogram — nearly 38 times higher than China’s national safety limit of 200 micrograms per kilogram.

The contaminated pork had already entered local supermarket circulation before the issue was discovered. The subsidiary reportedly challenged the authenticity of the testing samples after the results were released, but regulators rejected the objection following a review.

Lincomycin is an antibiotic commonly used to treat bacterial infections. Medical experts say long-term or excessive consumption of foods containing high antibiotic residues may cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, allergic reactions and liver damage, while severe cases could trigger pseudomembranous enteritis or even allergic shock.

Shuanghui Development apologized today for the incident and said it had immediately formed a special task force to cooperate with government investigators and conduct a comprehensive internal review at the affected subsidiary.

The company said that since October 2025, the subsidiary had conducted 5,892 internal tests for lincomycin, while regulators had carried out three additional inspections, all of which had previously returned compliant results.

Shuanghui also said that across all of its pig slaughterhouses nationwide, more than 38,000 internal tests and eight government inspections had found no violations.

The company pledged to strengthen source control, increase testing frequency and improve traceability management throughout its pork supply chain.

Shuanghui Development is one of China’s biggest meat processing companies and a subsidiary of WH Group, which is widely regarded as the world’s largest pork producer and processor. The company dominates China’s packaged meat market and owns US-based Smithfield Foods.