Cross-Straits talks to cover food safety

By Wu Jiao (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-09-25 08:03

Food safety has been put high on the agenda of the second round of talks between the mainland's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) and Taiwan's Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) scheduled for late October, following contaminated baby formula from the mainland being found on sale in Taiwan, a Taiwan affairs spokesman said Wednesday.

Twenty-five tons of powdered milk sold by Hebei province-based Sanlu Group to Taiwan in June were found contaminated with melamine, State Council Taiwan Affairs Office spokesman Li Weiyi said at a press conference.

Since Sept 12, Sanlu has recalled all of its baby formula products found to contain melamine, a chemical that makes milk appear rich in protein and that led to infants who took Sanlu's milk powder to develop kidney stones.

Tainted baby formula has claimed the lives of at least four infants and left about 53,000 others suffering from various urinary tract problems.

"The Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council informed the Taiwan authorities immediately after the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine reported the case, and has ordered Sanlu to ask their Taiwan partners to stop selling the contaminated milk powder," Li said.

"We have also informed Taiwan authorities about the other 21 mainland dairy companies whose products were found contaminated with melamine," Li said. Those companies have not sold products to Taiwan.

"We feel deeply sorry for the trouble Sanlu infant formula might have brought to Taiwan consumers," Li said.

Li said the tainted milk products were a major food safety incident, and both the mainland and Taiwan authorities were making efforts to minimize its negative impact on cross-Straits relations.

"We are cooperating with the SEF and Taiwan authorities to find where the tainted milk was sold and to make a thorough investigation into the whole incident," he said.

He said that Taiwan consumers who were affected by the tainted Sanlu products can seek compensation through the SEF and the ARATS. The mainland authorities will organize expert committees to deal with those cases.

Asked about the possible contamination of melamine in artificial coffee creamer products sold to Taiwan, Li said that there was no evidence of such cases so far.

He said the Shandong provincial quality inspection bureau had checked the creamer produced by Qingdao-based Shandong Duqing Company, which was reported by a number of Taiwan media organizations as selling tainted products to Taiwan, and did not find evidence of melamine contamination.

Taiwanese government official Liu Chao-shiuan said on Tuesday that Taiwan intends to send a team of experts to the mainland to gather information on the tainted milk scandal.