Surprise, surprise! Chinese authorities have found more cases of milk products contaminated with the toxic industrial chemical melamine, state media has reported, more than a year after a world wide scandal which sickened thousands of infants and killed quite a few pets, including my own Labrador, Bessie.
The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department said it is looking into the mainland reports, but declined to make further comment.
Melamine is normally used in the manufacture of plastics and fertilizer, but can disguise milk that has been watered-down by making the diluted milk appear to contain more protein than it actually does in quality control tests. Shorter version: greed!
In the light of the SCOTUS's asinine decision, can China get away with dumping poisonous food products & toys onto the market by sponsoring a few Senators? It remains to be seen.
I did a series of melamine diaries last year outlining exactly what this does to humans & pets here, here and here. There were more, but I think you get the point.
In the wake of the scare, Chinese authorities vowed to implement stricter consumer safety measures and step up inspections on the dairy industry in particular. Well, do you feel more confident now? If consumed by humans (or pets), it can cause kidney stones to develop and potentially kidney failure. According to reports today, food products from three companies were found laced with the chemical. Those products, we're told, were not destined for US markets. However we know that quite a number of foodstuffs reached North America and Europe via families and friends who, presumably unaware, brought them in their suitcases.
BTW, one of those companies was involved in an earlier scandal over tainted milk, in which six children died and hundreds of thousands of others fell sick. This, IMHO, calls into question the effectiveness of a crackdown launched by Chinese officials to improve their product safety.
Tainted products from three companies — Shandong Zibo Lusaier Dairy, Liaoning Tieling Wuzhou Food, and Laoting Kaida Refrigeration — were discovered in more than a dozen convenience stores around the province.
Laoting Kaida Refrigeration was among companies named in the original melamine scandal in 2008, when six children died and 300,000 were sickened after drinking baby formula with melamine, used in the manufacture of plastics and fertilizer.
The official China Daily newspaper quoted Wang Dingmian, former chairman of the Guangdong Provincial Dairy Association, as saying tainted milk products recalled at the time somehow made their way back onto the market. He said the latest discoveries of contaminated dairy exposed weak government regulation.
In the latest alert, unnamed authorities (meaning they are not allowed to speak to journalists) said more than a dozen stores in southern Guizhou province were found to be selling contaminated products.
Officials said the products may have been recalled after the earlier scandal but had found their way back on to the market. How this happened remains a mystery.
I would doubly check all food produce and pet foods from China before purchasing. Read all labels, and buy local whenever possible.