Panic as Chinese milk found to be tainted with chemical

Pure milk, not so pure after all

9/20/08
By now, you probably have heard about the tainted milk in China. Yes, it’s created quite a stir here in the Davis’ household in China. Elwin usually has oatmeal and milk for breakfast. Shirley either has milk and toast, or soymilk and Chinese onion pancakes if she gets up early enough to go out to get them (fresh). We enjoy having flavored milk, with walnut, almond, strawberry, or even black rice flavors. The only problem we have encountered so far is the milk fat. It’s usually above 3%, not good when you are watching cholesterol. It mentioned that the company named Mengniu had recalled their milk. Too late, we just had a couple of bags (120 grams @) from Mengniu Company today. Watch our kidney stones develop. If we come home stoned, you'll know why.

This is the news from Xinhua News Agency.

Published Date: 20 September 2008

CHINA'S food safety crisis widened today after an industrial chemical was found in milk produced by three of the country's leading dairy companies.

The news prompted shops to take milk off shelves.

China's national product safety agency said that all batches of milk that tested positive for melamine, a chemical used in plastics and fertilisers, were being recalled. The news comes as evidence mounts that adding chemicals to watered-down milk is a widespread practice in China's dairy industry.

The chief financial officer of one of the companies, Mengniu, apologized yesterday, but Yao Tongshan insisted only a small portion of their milk had been contaminated and the tainted milk came from small-scale dairy farmers.

He said: "Large-scale milk farms are very disciplined. They won't take the risk to do something like that." He also sipped from a carton of milk in a bid to bolster consumer confidence.
The crisis was initially thought to have been confined to tainted milk powder, used to make baby formula that has been blamed in the deaths of four infants.

But tests found melamine in samples of liquid milk taken from Mengniu, Yili and Bright Dairy.