Tainted milk powder seized in China

The powder seized in the north-western province of Gansu contained up to 500 times the allowed level of melamine, Xinhua news agency reports.

Two officials from the dairy company at the centre of the latest discovery in Gansu have been detained.

The reports highlight China’s continuing problems in curbing the use of melamine. This chemical is used to make plastics, fertilisers and concrete but has been widely and illegally added to dairy products to give the appearance of higher protein content. Melamine ingestion can cause kidney stones and urinary tract infections.

In 2008, 22 Chinese dairy companies were hit by a massive scandal and blamed for the deaths of at least six infants and making another 300,000 ill after melamine was found in their products. It also led to worldwide recalls of Chinese dairy products.

Although China’s government has maintained that all contaminated products were seized and destroyed after the scandal and that there was no further public health threat, worrying reports have continued to trickle out.

Xinhua said that the latest contaminated batch of milk powder had been traced to the Dongyuan Dairy Factory in Qinghai province which borders Gansu. Some of the ingredients found in the milk powder were purchased from suppliers in Hebei province, where the 2008 scandal erupted. The factory owner and the production manager of the Dongyuan Dairy Factory have been detained.

Xinhua said that “most” of the tainted milk powder had not yet entered the market, without being more specific about how much had actually been sold.

A Chinese activist, Zhao Lianhai, whose own child became ill in 2008, was tried in Beijing in March for provoking social disorder as he was seeking compensation for the victims.

There has still been no verdict in that case.