Imported Baby Formula Flying Off Shelves As China Fails To Control Tainted Milk Products

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Main Category: Pediatrics / Children's Health
Also Included In: Regulatory Affairs / Drug Approvals;  Nutrition / Diet;  Urology / Nephrology
Article Date: 17 Sep 2008 - 9:00 PDT

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Imported baby formula is flying off the shelves in China, as the Chinese government fails to convince consumers that it is able to stop corrupt manufacturers from adding toxic chemicals to milk products.

A report by the BBC said that food inspectors in China are not able to control the companies that are adding toxic substances such as melamine to milk powder that is fed to children.

Apparently, the problem is not the law, which is strict, but the ability to enforce it, with unscrupulous suppliers adding chemicals like melamine to make milk appear like it has more protein that it actually contains.

A BBC reporter based in Beijing, said the Sanlu Group, who are based in the city of Shijiazhuang in Hebei province is one company under the government's spotlight. According to China's Health Minister, Chen Zhu, three children have died and 6,000 have become seriously ill after consuming powdered milk made by Sanlu. 160 of the children have acute kidney failure.

Melamine is an organic compound used to make hard plastics and also other products like fertilizers. It is not easy to detect with conventional scanners because the relative proportions of nitrogen, carbon and hydrogen atoms in the compound are similar to non-toxic food substances.

Also, China's food inspectors don't routinely check for melamine in milk products because they are not expecting it to be there - this is not a case of contamination by an unwanted byproduct of milk processing, it is a deliberate introduction of a toxic chemical.

There was a scandal last year when pet food products imported from China into the US were found to be contaminated with melamine that was substituted for wheat gluten (a safe compound that is used to boost protein content in food).

In this latest scandal, it has been suggested that the melamine is being added to fresh milk supplied to Sanlu.

According to Xinhua news agency, more than 10,000 tons of Sanlu baby formula has been seized and recalled and will be destroyed. A man arrested earlier this week confessed to adding melamine to fresh milk, while knowing it was a toxin. He said his family did not drink the contaminated milk.

One mother, Wang Wenli, told the BBC that she was reluctant to let her three year old son drink fresh milk. He stopped having powdered milk last year. She said if there was a problem with milk powder then the chances are there is a problem with fresh milk too.

After a similar scare in 2004, the Chinese government issued a list of approved brands, but then a later check showed some of those were also contaminated with melamine. That is why consumers find it hard to trust Chinese brands and appear to be buying more and more foreign brands.

One industry source who did not wish to be identified said foreign firms operating in China were using their own inspectors to check supplies from Chinese companies.

Source: BBC, Xinhua.

Written by: Catharine Paddock, PhD


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