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Coffeeshop Chit Chat - China finds more tainted milk</TD><TD id=msgunetc noWrap align=right>
Subscribe </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><TABLE class=msgtable cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="96%"><TBODY><TR><TD class=msg vAlign=top><TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR class=msghead><TD class=msgbfr1 width="1%"> </TD><TD><TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0><TBODY><TR class=msghead vAlign=top><TD class=msgF width="1%" noWrap align=right>From: </TD><TD class=msgFname width="68%" noWrap>kojakbt89 <NOBR></NOBR> </TD><TD class=msgDate width="30%" noWrap align=right>Feb-8 11:00 pm </TD></TR><TR class=msghead><TD class=msgT height=20 width="1%" noWrap align=right>To: </TD><TD class=msgTname width="68%" noWrap>ALL <NOBR></NOBR></TD><TD class=msgNum noWrap align=right> (1 of 10) </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR><TR><TD class=msgleft rowSpan=4 width="1%"> </TD><TD class=wintiny noWrap align=right>28352.1 </TD></TR><TR><TD height=8></TD></TR><TR><TD class=msgtxt>Feb 9, 2010
China finds more tainted milk
Less than half recovered as products from earlier scandal go back on sale
BEIJING: China has discovered some 170 tonnes of tainted milk powder in an emergency crackdown that has made it increasingly clear that many products from the country's 2008 milk scandal were repackaged for sale instead of being destroyed.
The growing number of cases in recent weeks challenges the government's earlier promise to overhaul its approach to food safety after hundreds of thousands of children in the 2008 scandal were sickened by milk products tainted with the industrial chemical melamine. At least six children died.
Already, tainted milk products have recently emerged in China's largest city, Shanghai, and in the provinces of Shaanxi, Shandong, Liaoning, Guizhou, Jilin and Hebei. Candies made with tainted powder were found in the north-eastern province of Jilin.
China's 10-day emergency crackdown on the products will end tomorrow, and it was not clear whether it would be extended. The country's biggest holiday, the Chinese New Year, starts this weekend, and already some offices are closing and millions of people are going on vacation.
In the latest discovery, only 72 tonnes of powder were actually recovered. The authorities were tracking down the remaining 100 tonnes, which could still be on shop shelves.
At least three people have been arrested, according to Agence France-Presse.
At the weekend, officials closed two dairy companies in the northern region of Ningxia, the official China Daily newspaper reported yesterday.
Police in Ningxia found that a company outside the region had given one of the now-closed dairy firms around 170 tonnes of tainted milk powder left over from the 2008 scandal as debt payment in July last year, the report said.
The firm involved - the Ningxia Tiantian Dairy company - then repackaged nearly all of the powder and sold it to five factories in northern and southern China.
It was unclear whether the dairy firm knew the product was contaminated.
'Our small companies were in total trust of their partners because they have been doing business and having good relations with them for a long time,' Mr Zhao Shuming, secretary-general of the Ningxia Dairy Industry Association, had told the Associated Press earlier. 'They didn't expect those companies would hurt them.'
China Daily had quoted Mr Zhao as saying that many small dairies, including Ningxia Tiantian, did not have the technology to even test for melamine.
'Such a machine can cost up to 1 million yuan (S$208,300)...But their repacking of the products is illegal,' he said.
The newspaper also quoted him as saying: 'Flaws in the previous system led to the current chaos. What if companies with tainted milk also hold back their stocks for this round of check-ups and reuse them later, just like what is happening now?'
Mr Zhao spoke more carefully yesterday, telling the Associated Press: 'We have strict checks, and our client companies have strict checks too.'
There have been no reported deaths or illnesses from the latest batches of tainted milk. About 300,000 children sought medical treatment, many with kidney stones, in the 2008 scandal - China's worst food safety crisis in years.
China executed two people in November for their role in that scandal, which further sullied the made-in-China brand after a string of health and product safety scares.
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China finds more tainted milk
Less than half recovered as products from earlier scandal go back on sale
BEIJING: China has discovered some 170 tonnes of tainted milk powder in an emergency crackdown that has made it increasingly clear that many products from the country's 2008 milk scandal were repackaged for sale instead of being destroyed.
The growing number of cases in recent weeks challenges the government's earlier promise to overhaul its approach to food safety after hundreds of thousands of children in the 2008 scandal were sickened by milk products tainted with the industrial chemical melamine. At least six children died.
Already, tainted milk products have recently emerged in China's largest city, Shanghai, and in the provinces of Shaanxi, Shandong, Liaoning, Guizhou, Jilin and Hebei. Candies made with tainted powder were found in the north-eastern province of Jilin.
China's 10-day emergency crackdown on the products will end tomorrow, and it was not clear whether it would be extended. The country's biggest holiday, the Chinese New Year, starts this weekend, and already some offices are closing and millions of people are going on vacation.
In the latest discovery, only 72 tonnes of powder were actually recovered. The authorities were tracking down the remaining 100 tonnes, which could still be on shop shelves.
At least three people have been arrested, according to Agence France-Presse.
At the weekend, officials closed two dairy companies in the northern region of Ningxia, the official China Daily newspaper reported yesterday.
Police in Ningxia found that a company outside the region had given one of the now-closed dairy firms around 170 tonnes of tainted milk powder left over from the 2008 scandal as debt payment in July last year, the report said.
The firm involved - the Ningxia Tiantian Dairy company - then repackaged nearly all of the powder and sold it to five factories in northern and southern China.
It was unclear whether the dairy firm knew the product was contaminated.
'Our small companies were in total trust of their partners because they have been doing business and having good relations with them for a long time,' Mr Zhao Shuming, secretary-general of the Ningxia Dairy Industry Association, had told the Associated Press earlier. 'They didn't expect those companies would hurt them.'
China Daily had quoted Mr Zhao as saying that many small dairies, including Ningxia Tiantian, did not have the technology to even test for melamine.
'Such a machine can cost up to 1 million yuan (S$208,300)...But their repacking of the products is illegal,' he said.
The newspaper also quoted him as saying: 'Flaws in the previous system led to the current chaos. What if companies with tainted milk also hold back their stocks for this round of check-ups and reuse them later, just like what is happening now?'
Mr Zhao spoke more carefully yesterday, telling the Associated Press: 'We have strict checks, and our client companies have strict checks too.'
There have been no reported deaths or illnesses from the latest batches of tainted milk. About 300,000 children sought medical treatment, many with kidney stones, in the 2008 scandal - China's worst food safety crisis in years.
China executed two people in November for their role in that scandal, which further sullied the made-in-China brand after a string of health and product safety scares.
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