China strengthens supervision during holidays to curb tainted milk scandal

China continued to strengthen dairy product supervision during the week-long National Day holiday amid efforts to ensure food safety and restore public trust in milk supplies.

All the milk containing melamine had been withdrawn from sale in northern Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and consumers should be confident, according to the regional administration for industry and commerce.

More than 110,000 people were dispatched to examine milk products across the region. A total of 23,000 kilograms of milk powder and 30,000 kilograms of liquid milk were isolated, said Li Yan, the administration deputy director.

The regional product quality watchdog has sent officials to supervise production and tested more than 1,500 batches of milk products in more than 160 milk factories.

Yili and Mengniu, China's two leading brands based in Inner Mongolia, have made promises to ensure milk safety and are promoting their products to renew confidence among the public.

Melamine is a chemical used to make plastics. Experts say it was added illegally to watered-down raw milk to make it appear as if it had a high protein content. The tainted milk is known to have killed four babies and left 13,000 others hospitalized with kidney problems in China.

A total of 206 officials in Shaanxi Province were sent to monitor the production processes of 95 milk factories, said Zhang Fuhai, director of the provincial product safety watchdog.

"The products shall be put on sale only after they passed the strict sampling tests," said Qu Rui'e who was in charge of supervising the Oriental Dairy Co. Ltd. based in Xi'an, the provincial capital.

Statistics showed that the daily sales of milk products in the province increased by about 10 percent during the National Day holiday from late September.

North China's Hebei Province has started to destroy more than 400 tons of milk found to be contaminated with melamine. All the tainted milk had been sealed off before Saturday.

Meanwhile, the Hebei government had earmarked 316 million yuan in subsidies, paying dairy farmers 200 yuan per cow.

"We must crack down on illegal behavior, and we must protect the interests of the dairy sector. With the support of the government, enterprises are purchasing more milk and farmers are building up confidence," said Liu Daqun, head of the provincial agriculture department.

A nationwide inspection of baby milk powder was ordered on Sept. 11 after media reports that products from Sanlu and other Chinese brands contained melamine. Testing has been broadened from baby formula to other types of milk products.

The latest sample tests on 609 batches of liquid milk from 27 cities across China detected no melamine in newly supplied liquid milk on the market, said the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine on Saturday.

In the previous inspection, on Sept. 30, officials tested 265 batches of adult milk powder produced before Sept. 14 by 154 companies, and the tests found 31 batches from 20 companies were tainted with melamine.

Source: Xinhua