> The Portrait of a Poisonous Olympic Host -- Chinese tainted milk crisis
> widens/The Toronto Star
>
> Chinese tainted milk crisis widens
>
> TheStar.com - World - Chinese tainted milk crisis widens
> JIANAN YU/REUTERS
>
> http://multimedia.thestar.com/images/27/0e/852f9e024d19804eafb4f2ea79...
> A child who suffered from kidney stones is treated at hospital in
> China’s Anhui province Sept. 15, 2008. Contaminated milk formula has
> been linked to two deaths and has sickened some 1,250 infants.
> 10 per cent of liquid milk tested – not just powdered baby formula –
> found to have melamine toxin
> September 19, 2008
> Tini Tran
> THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
>
> BEIJING–China's tainted milk crisis widened Friday after tests found the
> industrial chemical melamine in liquid milk produced by three of the
> country's leading dairy companies, the quality watchdog said.
>
> Tainted baby formula has been blamed for killing four infants and
> sickening 6,200 in China since the scandal broke last week. Some 1,300
> babies, mostly newborns, are currently in hospitals and 158 of them are
> suffering from acute kidney failure. Thousands of parents across the
> country were bringing their children to hospitals for health checks.
>
> The crisis was initially thought to have been confined to tainted milk
> powder.
>
> But about 10 per cent of liquid milk samples taken from Mengniu Dairy
> Group Co. and Yili Industrial Group Co. – China's two largest dairy
> producers – contained melamine, according to the General Administration
> of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine. Milk from
> Shanghai-based Bright Dairy also showed contamination.
>
> Hong Kong's two biggest grocery chains, PARKnSHOP and Wellcome, pulled
> all liquid milk by Mengniu from shelves Friday. 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 China had pulled milk supplied by
> Mengniu. Seattle-based Starbucks said no employees or customers had
> fallen ill from the milk.
>
> And Singapore called on retailers Friday to remove a Chinese-made yogurt
> bar from stores because the product may be contaminated.
>
> The scandal began with complaints over milk powder by 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.
>
> Melamine is a toxic industrial chemical that can cause kidney stones and
> lead to kidney failure. It 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.
>
> The scandal is the latest in a series of problems with tainted products
> made in China. The crisis has raised doubts 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
> ingredient tainted with melamine.
>
> Though most of the suspect dairy products are only sold domestically,
> two of the companies involved exported baby formula to five countries in
> Asia and Africa.
>
> Other products such as milk, yogurt and ice cream went to Hong Kong,
> while Singapore's Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority, known as AVA,
> warned customers against eating Yili-brand Natural Choice Yogurt
> Flavoured Ice Bar with Real Fruit after Hong Kong food safety
> authorities said a sample of the product was found to contain low levels
> of melamine.
>
> "As a precautionary measure, AVA has advised importers and retailers to
> remove this product from the market and withhold them from sale
> immediately, pending the result of AVA's investigation and tests," the
> authority said in a statement. "AVA advises consumers who have bought
> the implicated product not to consume them."
>
> The AVA said it was testing other imported milk and dairy products from
> China for melamine contamination.
>
> Two distributors said Friday that Sanlu ordered them to pull its baby
> formula off store shelves in early July, weeks before the company went
> public with the melamine contamination.
>
> The statements by the distributors in Hebei province, where Sanlu is
> headquartered, raise further questions about when the company and
> government knew milk powder being fed to babies was tainted with a
> banned chemical.
>
> A New Zealand stakeholder in Sanlu has said it was told in early August,
> before the start of the Beijing Olympics on Aug. 8, that there was a
> problem. The dairy farmers' group Fonterra, which owns 43 per cent of
> Sanlu Group, told the New Zealand government, which informed Chinese
> officials.
>
> The public was not told until Sept. 11 that the powder, used in baby
> formula and other products, was laced with melamine.
>
> "We were asked by Sanlu to take all their 2007 to July 2008 baby powder
> off the shelves in early July" and replace it with new powder, said one
> of the distributors, Zhang Youqiang.
>
> "Then things got weird. In early August, they came to us again and said
> all the new Sanlu baby milk powder we had just put on the shelves" did
> not meet a certain government standard unrelated to product quality,
> said Zhang, who declined to give his company name for fear of offending
> Sanlu. He said it was not clear what the standard was that had not been met.
>
> Zhang said he now has warehouses full of contaminated milk powder and is
> trying to get refunds from Sanlu.
>
> Another distributor, Liang Jianqiang, said he was also trying to get
> money from Sanlu. He also took Sanlu baby milk powder out of stores in July.
>
> "They told me there would be a new formula that's better quality. They
> did this again in August and September," he said. Liang also did not
> want to disclose the name of his company.
>
> Phone calls to Sanlu rang unanswered Friday and its website was not
> working. China's quality watchdog did not respond after asking to be
> sent a fax with questions.
>
> The quality watchdog said it intended to "severely punish those who are
> responsible," according to a notice posted on the agency's website. It
> said all the batches that tested positive were being recalled.