Contaminated Milk Resold in China
Most thought when the dairy products company Sanlu bankrupted and the chief culprits was sentenced to death in the wake of the 2008 melamine scandals, it was safe to trust the domestic dairy producers and that melamine would be no more.
Indeed, despite the initial fears and boycotts that almost ruined dairies, consumers have returned and the dairies industry has reported a "better-than-expected" recovery according to the Ministry of Agriculture.
But that was prior to the re-emergence of melamine-contaminated dairy products on store shelves. Five companies were found to have used melamine-tainted materials that should have been destroyed in 2008.
As a result, the Chinese government has launched a 10-day market wide probe to thoroughly investigate and destroy tainted milk powders produced in 2008.
However, it's doubtful that this 10-day purge will be effective given that the authorities were ineffective when they had more than a year to investigate and destroy.
For example, the Shanghai-based Panda Dairy Co Ltd had been on the official blacklist of melamine users in the 2008 scandals. The fact that it has survived and even committed new offenses is a serious and loud alarm. And for melamine to be redistributed into the marketplace is embarrassing proof that our food safety monitoring system is not working.
10-day crackdown is for show, we need a real long-term solution to hold all offenders, not just those adding melamine to our daily milk, accountable at all times.
February 15th, 2010 - 12:15
I am a milk lover. Whenever I thought of all the milk I had drunk before, I felt horrible. Contaminated milk does more harm to the kids who are totally unaware of this. The Chinese government should take serious actions to regulate the milk market.