Poisoned milk scandal widens in China, top dairies implicated
Canada tests imported milk and yogurt products as a precaution
Last Updated: Friday, September 19, 2008 | 7:24 AM ET
CBC News
Cows are milked on the production line at the headquarters of Mengniu Dairy Group in Hohhot in northern China. The dairy is one of three leading milk producers implicated in the country's latest tainted product scandal. (Associated Press) China's tainted milk crisis widened Friday after tests found the dangerous chemical melamine in the milk produced by three of the country's leading dairy companies.
The news has prompted the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to test yogurt and milk products imported from the implicated dairy companies as a precautionary measure, while some Canadian vendors have been pulling the products from their shelves just to be safe.
On Friday, about 10 per cent of liquid milk samples taken from China's two largest dairy producers — Mengniu Dairy Group Co. and Yili Industrial Group Co. — were found to contain melamine, according to the General Administration of Quality.
Milk from Shanghai-based Bright Dairy also showed contamination.
The crisis was thought initially to have been confined to milk powder used in baby formula. The tainted products have been blamed for killing four infants in China and sickening another 6,200 children.
All products that have tested positive have been recalled and China says it will "severely punish those who are responsible," according to a notice posted on the country's food safety agency.
Women and their babies wait for examination at a hospital in Fuyang in central China's Anhui province on Thursday. (Associated Press) No cases of melamine have been reported in Canada. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency expects test results from the yogurt and milk products to be ready in a few days.
In the meantime, T&T Supermarket, a Vancouver-based Chinese grocery chain, has pulled all Mengniu and Yili yogurt products from all of its stores, which are located in British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario.
While Mengniu and Yili brands of yogurt are sold in Canada, no baby formula from China is approved for sale in the country. However, the Canadian food agency warns consumers that Chinese baby formula could be illegally imported into the country and may be for sale in some stores that carry ethnic foods.
Liquid milk pulled from stores
Reactions to news of the latest melamine detections were immediate across the globe. Hong Kong's two biggest grocery chains, PARKnSHOP and Wellcome, pulled all liquid milk by Mengniu from shelves. A day earlier, Hong Kong had recalled milk, yogurt, ice cream and other products made by Yili Industrial Group Co.
Starbucks Corp. said its 300 cafes in mainland China had pulled milk supplied by Mengniu. Starbucks said no employees or customers had fallen ill from the milk.
Melamine is an industrial chemical used in plastics and fertilizers that can cause kidney stones and lead to kidney failure if ingested.
Melamine has no nutritional value but is high in nitrogen, making products with it appear higher in protein. Suppliers trying to cut costs are believed to have added it to watered-down milk to cover up the resulting protein deficiency.
Yao Tongshan, the chief financial officer of Mengniu, apologized for the crisis, but insisted only a small portion of the company's inventory was contaminated. He blamed small dairy farmers for providing the tainted milk.
"Large-scale milk farms are very disciplined. They won't take the risk of doing something like that," he told reporters in Hong Kong.
But others argued that many farmers wouldn't know how to properly add melamine to milk products. It must be mixed with formaldehyde or another chemical in order for it to dissolve in milk.
"Farmers can't be well-educated enough to think of melamine. There must be people from chemical companies contacting them and telling them it's a good idea," said Chen Lianfang, a Beijing dairy analyst.
Parents rush children to hospitals
Since word of the tainted baby formula emerged last week, thousands of parents across China have been bringing their children to hospitals, worried about their safety. About 1,300 babies, mostly newborns, remain hospitalized, with 158 suffering from acute kidney failure.
Earlier this week, Mengniu chief executive officer Niu Gensheng vowed to create a clean dairy product market, saying "if this thing cannot be properly dealt with, I'll resign," according to the financial magazine Caijing.
The scandal began with complaints over milk powder by the Sanlu Group Co., one of China's best-known and most respected brands, but it quickly became a much larger problem as government tests found that one-fifth of the companies producing baby milk powder had melamine in their products.
Though most of the dairy products involved are only sold domestically, two of the companies export some items to five countries in Asia and Africa.
On Friday, regulators for consumer product safety in the United States, European Union and China met to announce a joint initiative that will allow for direct co-operation between the three parties on consumer safety issues.
Government handling questioned
Questions continued to swirl about the handling of the scandal by milk producer Sanlu and government officials.
The company reportedly received complaints about its formula as early as March and tests revealed the contamination by early August, just before the Olympics. Sanlu issued a recall on Sept. 11 after its New Zealand partner told the New Zealand government, which then informed the Chinese authorities.
The widening crisis has raised questions about the effectiveness of tighter controls China promised after a series of food safety scares in recent years over contaminated seafood, toothpaste and a pet food tainted with melamine.
