'Drug-like' snacks sold near schools worry parents

The powdery snack sold in shops around primary schools in Taizhou.

A girl sucks the powdery snack through a straw.

(ECNS) – A kind of snack sold in shops around primary schools in Taizhou, Jiangsu province, has aroused public concern, the Yangtze Evening Post reported.

A woman surnamed Chen said her son had bought a kind of powdery snack which can be sucked through a straw. "The way he eats it is just like taking drugs," she said.

"It's milk powder," a shop owner selling the snack said.

The snack sells well for its taste and special way of eating it, the shop owner added.

Many shops around schools in the downtown area have stopped selling it after an investigation led by local authorities.

However, another powdery snack stuffed into plastic straws was still on sale, and cigar-shaped candies were also popular among pupils.

A medical expert at Taizhou People's Hospital said powdery food may cause breathing convulsions in children and lead to pulmonary infections if the powder is breathed into lungs.

Zhang Chun, an expert on social psychology in Nanjing, said these snacks may mislead children: "The cigar-shaped candies may convince them that cigarettes are tasty rather than harmful."

A staffer at the local industrial and commercial bureau said they must seize products that lack company names or trademarks, but if the inappropriate snacks are qualified, they can do nothing but suggest that merchants stop selling them.