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In a recent news, 35 restaurants across China, including a famous hot pot chain in Beijing, have been found using opium poppies illegally as seasoning, one of the many unusual practices that has been notices by the food regulators of the country. Five restaurants have already faced prosecution while the other 30, such as Shanghai dumpling Joints and several noodle shops in Southwestern Chongqing, are being investigated for illegal use of poppy seasoning, said the China Food and Drug Administration. It is not the first time when the cases of using ground poppy powder containing low amounts of codeine and morphine have been used as seasoning in seafood and soup in China. However, it is unclear whether or not these foods become addictive for the customer, reports CBS News

Poppy powder is made from shells and capsules that have high content of opiate and is readily available in the Western Chinese market for $60 a kg, as per 2014 report by the Xinhua news agency. These additives were mixed with powders and chili oil making them hard to detect without the use of lab equipment. In 2014, a noodle vendor was taken into custody for 10 days after he admitted to adding powdered poppy plant in his dishes so that his customers could keep coming back, as reported by CNN. This case was highlighted when a 26-year-old man was stopped by the police and tested for drugs soon after he had a bowl of noodles.

This is not the first time that China has come under the scanner for its food safety scandals. In 2014, a news organization reported that a meat supplier was selling expired meat to popular food chains such as KFC, McDonald's and Pizza Hut locations. Even though the government is working feverishly to improve food standards, Chinese consumers face a constant threat of high-profile food scares that also includes fake baby milk, fake meat and seafood inflated with gelatin, reports Eater.com