Not again! Melamine found in dairy products
Source: Xinhua |
July 10, 2010, Saturday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
Chinese police have arrested four suspects and seized 76 tons of raw powder and finished dairy products laced with a chemical that was apparently left over from a milk scandal in 2008 that killed six babies and sickened hundreds of thousands.
China ordered tens of thousands of tainted milk products burned or buried in the melamine milk scandal in 2008.
The tainted dairy products were meant to be destroyed but it is not clear how it leaked out again.
Melamine is added to watered-down milk to make it appear rich in protein in quality tests that measure nitrogen, found in both melamine and protein. Health problems from the chemical include kidney stones and kidney damage.
The latest melamine-tainted milk powder was first discovered in northwest China's Gansu Province, but police traced the source to Dongyuan Dairy Factory in Minhe County of neighboring Qinghai Province, a spokesman for the National Food Safety Regulating Work Office said yesterday.
Police have arrested three top officials of the factory, including the owner Liu Zhanfeng, and an alleged raw milk powder supplier Zhou Zhonglin linked to the case, the spokesman said.
"All tainted milk powder at Dongyuan Dairy Factory has been sealed, and the Dongyuan dairy products that were sold to distributors outside Qinghai have also been seized," the spokesman said. "We have not yet found tainted milk products on the consumer market."
Tests of samples of the milk powder showed up to 500 times the maximum allowed level of the chemical melamine, said Gansu provincial food safety watchdog in earlier interviews.
The spokesman said a few packages of milk formula also tested positive for containing excessive melamine in northeast China's Jilin Province. The tainted products were among 900 kilograms of milk formula that was found to be produced by a plant with suspected falsified production licenses.
Police sealed off all milk formula at the plant's storage facility and are continuing the investigation.
In Dongyuan's case, police found 38 tons of the tainted raw materials were purchased from north China's Hebei Province, the source of the toxic baby formula scandal that brought down the state-owned dairy giant Sanlu Group in 2008.
Wang Zhongxi, deputy chief of the quality control bureau in Gansu, told reporters yesterday it is possible that traders had bought tainted milk formula discovered in the 2008 melamine scandal with the intention of processing and reselling it.
Police said Dongyuan managers sent three samples of milk powder to be tested for melamine content in Gansu, instead of Qinghai, on June 25. Gansu authorities called the police after test results showed the samples had excessive levels of melamine.
China ordered tens of thousands of tainted milk products burned or buried in the melamine milk scandal in 2008.
The tainted dairy products were meant to be destroyed but it is not clear how it leaked out again.
Melamine is added to watered-down milk to make it appear rich in protein in quality tests that measure nitrogen, found in both melamine and protein. Health problems from the chemical include kidney stones and kidney damage.
The latest melamine-tainted milk powder was first discovered in northwest China's Gansu Province, but police traced the source to Dongyuan Dairy Factory in Minhe County of neighboring Qinghai Province, a spokesman for the National Food Safety Regulating Work Office said yesterday.
Police have arrested three top officials of the factory, including the owner Liu Zhanfeng, and an alleged raw milk powder supplier Zhou Zhonglin linked to the case, the spokesman said.
"All tainted milk powder at Dongyuan Dairy Factory has been sealed, and the Dongyuan dairy products that were sold to distributors outside Qinghai have also been seized," the spokesman said. "We have not yet found tainted milk products on the consumer market."
Tests of samples of the milk powder showed up to 500 times the maximum allowed level of the chemical melamine, said Gansu provincial food safety watchdog in earlier interviews.
The spokesman said a few packages of milk formula also tested positive for containing excessive melamine in northeast China's Jilin Province. The tainted products were among 900 kilograms of milk formula that was found to be produced by a plant with suspected falsified production licenses.
Police sealed off all milk formula at the plant's storage facility and are continuing the investigation.
In Dongyuan's case, police found 38 tons of the tainted raw materials were purchased from north China's Hebei Province, the source of the toxic baby formula scandal that brought down the state-owned dairy giant Sanlu Group in 2008.
Wang Zhongxi, deputy chief of the quality control bureau in Gansu, told reporters yesterday it is possible that traders had bought tainted milk formula discovered in the 2008 melamine scandal with the intention of processing and reselling it.
Police said Dongyuan managers sent three samples of milk powder to be tested for melamine content in Gansu, instead of Qinghai, on June 25. Gansu authorities called the police after test results showed the samples had excessive levels of melamine.
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