At Some Restaurants in China, a Shortcut to Addictive Food: Poppies By EDWARD WONG in the NY Times, Jan 31, 2016

BEIJING — It is no secret that fans of Chinese food often find it addictive. They speak longingly of the numbing spice of Sichuan peppercorn or the sour herbs found in Yunnan cooking.
At least 36 restaurants in China tried to take that addictive quality one step further, and now have found themselves on the wrong side of the law. They were investigated in the past week by the authorities for adding poppy capsules and other illegal ingredients to food, according to a report on Friday by Xinhua, the state-run news agency.
The poppy capsule is made from the dried pericarp of the ripe fruit of an opium poppy plant, and it has more than 20 types of alkaloids, including those found in morphine and cocaine, the report said. It is used in the Chinese medicine industry, but it is illegal in cooking.
Transporting, buying, selling, storing or using poppy capsules in food can result in up to 15 days in detention or a fine of up to 3,000 renminbi, or $455.
The latest case came to light on Wednesday, when officials investigated a noodle shop in the city of Yulin in Shaanxi Province for adding poppy capsules to mutton noodles, Xinhua reported, citing a local newspaper.
Officials have found that poppy capsules are most often used by small restaurants serving heavily flavored food like hot pot, grilled fish and fried chicken. The Xinhua report quoted a chef at a hot pot restaurant in Sichuan Province who said cooks used to grind the poppy capsules into powder and add it to soup base, but that was easy for investigators to detect. So the cooks began adding the powder to MSG, or monosodium glutamate, and put it in sauce used by customers.
Poppy capsules are quietly sold in street markets that have cooking ingredients or those that specialize in Chinese medicine products.
In recent years, Chinese officials have tried to end this practice several times and have announced nationwide crackdowns. In 2014, three central government agencies, including the Ministry of Public Security, issued a notice saying they would carry out field inspections across the country and adopt a “zero tolerance” policy toward violations.
The Chinese food industry is regularly shaken by scandals. For example, people here often talk of restaurants using “gutter oil,” or illegally recycled oil that is dirty and can contain carcinogens.
In 2014, the Taiwanese police raided a factory in southern Taiwan that was accused of producing hundreds of tons of oil recycled from restaurant waste and slaughterhouse byproducts. Regulators investigated whether the oil had been shipped to mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau, where it may have been used in a wide range of cooking.
China has a long and complicated history with the opium poppy. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Qing emperors issued orders to try to ban the import of opium. Britain, the main exporter to China, fought two wars with the Qing in the 19th century to keep the trade flowing.
In the early 20th century, Britain agreed to end exports to China, and Chinese rulers vowed to halt domestic production. But opium became widespread again after the fall of the Qing Empire, and opium taxes became a source of revenue for warlords, provincial governments and leaders of the warring Kuomintang and Communist parties. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/31/world/asia/restaurants-in-china-investigated-over-poppy-capsules.html