Seven tons of fake salt was seized recently at over 30 retailers in Panjin, a city in northeast China's Liaoning province, in this undated photo. [Photo: lnd.com.cn]

Seven tons of fake salt were recently seized after its sales at over 30 retailers in Panjin, a city in northeast China's Liaoning province, was uncovered.

The fake salt, packaged in six hundred 500-gram bags, was first spotted in a local store. Inspectors who examined the salt discovered it contains no iodine, for some of the fake products were intended for industrial use.

Panjin news website "lnd.com.cn" reported an ongoing investigation focusing on six wholesalers dealing in the fake edible salt trade are underway.

Statistics from a Panjin salt industry company show that due the fake products' plague, the sale of authentic salt in Panjin dropped by about 4.6 million tons between January and September compared with the same period of last year.

As a result, local people purchased during the first ten months this year an estimated four million tons of non-iodized fake salt, with a big part of the salt was originally for industrial use. This is said to be almost the amount of salt that 76,000 people would use in one year if an average person consumes six kilo.