BEIJING - They may contain plenty of fibre, but that's all you can say for the cardboard-stuffed dumplings found on sale in the streets of Beijing in the latest example of China's food-safety woes.

In a case that has made television and newspaper headlines, a vendor was found selling the dumplings -- filled with cardboard that was passed off as meat.

An expose by undercover TV reporters showed how the unnamed man made the dumplings by softening shredded coardboard strips in caustic soda, an industrial chemical, and fortifying the bogus meat with a bit of fatty pork.

The merchant told the reporters that most customers noticed nothing wrong in eating the dumplings, known as "baozi".

He added that he himself never ate them. The First newspaper, a Beijing daily, reported on Friday that police had been summoned to shut him down.

China has taken a number of steps in recent months to improve consumer safety amid regular reports of fake, shoddy or dangerous goods emanating from the nation's chaotic and corrupt food and drug industry.

Toxic seafood, virus-plagued pigs and chemical-laden toothpaste are just some of the problems to have hit headlines around the world in recent months.

China this week executed the former head of its food and drug safety watchdog for corruption, in what was widely seen as an attempt by the government to show it is serious about the problem.

However, government officials have said one of the biggest challenges regulators face is policing the countless small operators such as the dumpling salesman, who operate with little or no supervision. - AFP/sh