Shop shelves across China are being cleared of popular dairy products after tests found contamination in regular milk as well as baby milk powder.
Inspectors found that 10% of liquid milk from three of China's dairies was tainted with melamine.
The scandal first came to light in milk powder that killed four infants and sickened more than 6,000 others.
Suppliers are suspected of diluting milk to cut costs, then adding melamine to make it appear higher in protein.
Melamine is an industrial chemical normally used in plastics, and is banned from food stuffs.
Recalls
China's quality watchdog, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, tested liquid milk from three dairies.
Its website said 10% of the milk from the country's two largest - Mengniu Dairy Group and Yili Industrial Group - contained up to 8.4 milligrams of melamine per kg.
Products from Shanghai-based Bright Dairy were also contaminated, it said.
Although Chinese officials sought to allay panic by insisting most milk was safe to drink, reaction to the news was swift.
Two Hong Kong supermarkets, Wellcome and Park'n Shop, on Friday cleared their shelves of Mengniu brands.
A day earlier, the Hong Kong government recalled Yili products, after tests found milk, ice-cream and yoghurt to be contaminated with melamine.
Singaporean retailers were also advised to pull Yili yoghurt ice bars from their shelves.
Starbucks stopped offering milk supplied by Mengniu at two-thirds of its outlets across China, although it stressed none of its staff or customers had fallen ill from the milk.
The EU and the US said they wanted to know how the scandal was allowed to develop - in order to ensure future overseas confidence in Chinese exports.
Meanwhile, foreign firms which import milk powder to China have pledged not to take advantage of the scandal by raising prices, Reuters news agency reports.
Anger
The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said it would "strictly find out the reason for adding the melamine and severely punish those who are responsible".
All the batches that tested positive were being recalled, it said.
The BBC's James Reynolds in Beijing says it is not being suggested that anyone has fallen ill from drinking liquid milk contaminated with melamine.
But he says people are extremely angry to learn that more and more products have been found to be unsafe.
One 31-year-old man queuing at Sanlu offices in Shijiazhuang to get a reimbursement for medical exam payments for his baby told Associated Press news agency: "If such a big company is having problems, then I really don't know who to trust."
The scandal broke last week after the Sanlu Group said it had sold melamine-laced milk powder.
Of those children made sick, more than 150 are said to have acute kidney failure.
Chinese police have arrested 18 people in connection with the scandal.
China's ability to police its food production industries has long been under question.
Health scares and fatalities in recent years have ranged from the contamination of seafood to toothpaste and, last year, to pet food exported to the US.
Discussion topic:
Do you think the Hong Kong government has done enough to ensure the safety of our milk products?
Posts
3 comments:
In this week ,we hear many news about tainted milk from China and many bablies have kidney stone. There are four babies dead and at least six thousand babies had affected in this hurricanes . In Hong Kong there also are two child has kidney stone. By the checking test ,there are sixty nine types of milk powder have polluted and some of it have transfer to Hong Kong. Some critic believe Hong Kong government hasn’t done enough for us. I totally agree with them.
Firstly, The government has provided incomplete information to the public. In bygone days, we could know many current affairs under the rule of British. However ,following devolve to China ,the pendulum has swung the other side. Nowadays ,the official announce after it broke. This is one of the Chinese culture. Don't wash the dirty linen in public’. The official just make known to the public after two or three days.
Secondly, the government are not care about the public. They just care about the consortium .The reason for this are not difficult to figure out .The major income of government is the tax from consortium. If there is no syndicate, the government will be troubles. So they save themselves but sacrifice the public. They help the consortium to conceal .
In conclusion, the official doesn’t take the responsibility of the community .So he hasn’t done enough to ensure the safety of our milk products.
by 6A2 Ko chun Man
Hi Chun Man,
I think your way of reasoning shows that you have a clear understanding of the current crisis. I particularly appreciate the point about Chinese culture, which has been clearly shown in this event. Still, there are some points regarding your language that you should take notice of.
1. Use of tenses
2. Verb forms
3. agreement
If you want, we can go through your comment together.
Mr. Fu
No. I think the Hong Kong government has not done enough to ensure the safety of our milk products. The contaminated dairies in the local chain supermarkets had been sold for a period of time until the scandal was alarmed in the mainland. Customers did not receive any reports or news about the tainted milk. After the outbreak of contaminated milk cries food and environment hygienic, Hong Kong government began to check other dairy products.
I critics Hong Kong government did not sensitive and aware enough about the safety of food products. Until now, there were not only dairy food contaminated with melamine, but also snacks, such like, chocolates, biscuits and milk tea bag could not been spared.
First and foremost, Hong Kong government should learn this lesson and made proper situation to improve the condition. Secondly, the relevant department must strongly supervise the quality of imported foods and check the ingradient of food carefully and seriously.
Thirdly, customers could pay more attention about the food contents labeled and raise awareness the news of food products safety frequently. I recommended customers search the official websites which teach people how to determine the good or bad contents inside foods.
I believe that, the matters of food safety in local would be solved if Hong Kong government concentrated on the food safety.
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