Milk collecting centers targeted in contamination probe

By Zhu Zhe (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-09-15 08:19

SHIJIAZHUANG -- The 19 people detained in the Sanlu milk food contamination case are from private milk collecting stations, the country's top quality control official said Sunday.

Dairy farmers are not likely to be responsible for the contamination that caused kidney stones in about 580 infants, one of who died on Thursday, he said.

"It's unlikely that dairy farmers mixed the industrial chemical melamine in fresh milk. We believe the contamination is more likely to have occurred at milk collecting stations," Li Changjiang, minister of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ), told China Daily on a train to Shijiazhuang.

The company, based in Hebei's provincial capital of Shijiazhuang, recalled about 700 tons of its baby milk food from the market on Thursday.

On Friday, Sanlu and the Shijiazhuang government had blamed "defective" fresh milk supplied by dairy farmers for the contamination.

An initial investigation, they said, "showed some farmers had mixed melamine in their milk so that they passed factory quality tests because the chemical makes milk appear rich in protein".

In the Hebei quality supervision and quarantine bureau laboratory, Li was shown more than 60 bags of white powder seized by police. Tests have shown that many of them contain a high level of melamine, a chemical used mainly to make plates, bowls, mugs and other sundry products.

Cheng Fang, director of the Hebei quality supervision and quarantine bureau, said almost all the samples were seized from local milk collecting stations.

"It's shocking," Li said. "It's a crime against the people."

The authorities will continue their probe into the case and those found guilty will get "severe punishment", Li said.

The AQSIQ has begun a nationwide quality inspection of the country's 175 baby milk food factories' products, and the results will be released in a day or two, he said.

A pair of twins suffering from kidney stones receive medical treatment at a hospital in Lanzhou, capital of northwest China's Gansu Province, September 14, 2008. [CFP]

The authorities will test the other dairy products, too, after completing their investigation into infant milk food.

AQSIQ teams have also left for Guangdong, Heilongjiang and Inner Mongolia, the largest dairy products' making areas, to ensure local governments intensify their inspections on dairy products.

"The teams' primary objective is to underscore the priority the central government accords to the (contamination) case," a notice posted on AQSIQ's website said.

On Saturday evening the State Administration for Industry and Commerce banned the sale of all Sanlu baby milk food made before Aug 6.

The State Council, the country's cabinet, declared a first-class national food safety emergency.

It has formed a leading national group, comprising officials of the Ministry of Health, AQSIQ and local governments, to look into the case.

On Saturday, Vice-Minister of Health Gao Qiang promised to take food quality supervision to a "new level".

Vice-Minister of Health Gao Qiang (L) and Pu Changcheng, deputy director of the State Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine answer questions concerning the tainted Sanlu-brand milk powder at the State Council Information Office in Beijing on September 13, 2008. [CFP]

The health ministry has notified the World Health Organization, the health department of the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions, the New Zealand embassy in China and the press about the development, Gao told a news briefing.

Sanlu Group, one of China's largest milk powder producers, is partly owned by New Zealand's Fonterra Cooperative Group.

The State Council Taiwan Affairs Office has notified Taiwan's departments about the situation, too.