WUHAN, June 11 -- Three people have been sentenced to prison terms in central China for selling beef offal soaked in formaldehyde, local authorities said Saturday.

A restaurant in Wuhan, capital of Hubei Province, was found to have used formaldehyde to soak about 2,000 kg of beef tripe and tendons worth about 100,000 yuan (15,000 U.S. dollars), according to Jianghan People's Procuratorate.

Beef offal is a common ingredient in the Chinese food. Soaked in cancerogenic formaldehyde, it appears fresh and white.

The restaurant owner with his son and other staff added the banned addictive to the offal in February last year.