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Nice to seperate Chinese product

Sandhusker

Well-known member
Tainted milk scandal broadens as China accuses a dozen new companies of being violators


BEIJING (AP) -- Fifteen more Chinese dairy companies were identified Wednesday as producing milk products contaminated with an industrial chemical, further broadening a scandal affecting products ranging from baby formula to chocolate, authorities said.
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The contamination has been blamed for the deaths of four children and kidney ailments among 54,000 others. More than 13,000 children have been hospitalized and 27 people arrested in connection with the tainting.

An additional 31 batches of Chinese milk powder were found tainted with the industrial chemical melamine, according to data seen on the food safety administration's Web site Wednesday. Out of the 20 companies on the list, 15 have not been named in previous tests.

The new batches being tested were mostly milk powder products for adults. A previous round of tests found melamine in 69 infant milk powder batches.

The new figure brings to at least 100 the number of tested batches of milk powder found to contain melamine. Dozens of brands sold by more than a score of dairy firms, including some of China's biggest names, have been among those tested.

Tests have also found melamine in 24 batches of liquid milk produced by three of the country's best known dairy firms.

It was a national holiday in China and product safety officials could not be reached for comment.

The Web site quoted the State Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine as saying it had tested 265 batches produced by 154 different companies prior to Sept. 14. China has a total of 290 companies making powdered milk, the administration said.

In the most recent tests, nine of the batches containing melamine were produced by the company at the center of the scandal, Sanlu, a 43 percent stake of which is owned by New Zealand dairy cooperative Fonterra. No date for the testing was given.

Melamine, which is high in nitrogen, is used to make plastics and fertilizers and experts say some amount of the chemical may be transferred from the environment during food processing. But in China's case, suppliers trying to boost output are believed to have diluted their milk, adding melamine because its nitrogen content can fool tests aimed at verifying protein content.

Melamine can cause kidney stones, leading to kidney failure. Infants are particularly vulnerable.

The scandal was worsened by an apparent cover-up by companies involved and the ignoring by safety officials of tips and warnings from parents and doctors. Top Sanlu executives and government officials in the northern city of Shijiazhuang, where the company is based, have been forced to resign.

Also on Wednesday, Hong Kong's food safety agency said its tests have found melamine in a Japanese brand's Chinese-made cheesecake. The agency said a sample of Lotte Cream Cheese Cake manufactured by Japan's Lotte China Foods Co. Ltd in mainland China was found to contain melamine.

Hong Kong and Macau authorities earlier detected excessive melamine in Lotte's popular Koala's March chocolate and strawberry cream cookies.

In Thailand, where food inspectors said they are testing nearly 100 imports from China for possible contamination, the country's public health minister, Chalerm Yoobamrung, said Wednesday that they should monitor the situation closely but should not "hype up (the issue) too much."

"I did not mean that I am afraid of China, but we have to be concerned about our trade ties because Thailand does a lot of business with China," he said.
 

PORKER

Well-known member
Chinese Government Promises to Stop Exports of Dairy Products
Source: FLEXNEWS
02/10/2008

2 Oct, 2008 - The Chinese Government has vowed to stop dairy exports until it can guarantee their safety, a Japanese official has said.
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The Japanese Government official said the promise was made in a meeting in Beijing with diplomats from several countries.

The Chinese Government was keen to stress that it had reacted to the situation quickly and had taken measures to halt exports of dairy products until their safety can be fully confirmed, said the Japanese source.

China confirmed that tests had revealed 12% of its milk powder products were contaminated with melamine and that 53,000 infants had so far been sickened and four died as a result of consuming tainted products.

Question, just how much of that cheap melamine milk powder did we import for the pet food and milk replacer industry ?
 

hypocritexposer

Well-known member
The 59-page report, drafted as salmonella sickened 1,300 people in 43 states over the summer, cited previously unpublished FDA figures showing that 14 people died and 10,253 were sickened in 96 outbreaks associated with fresh produce from 1996 through 2006.

oops, the US does it too. but not intentional, mind you! the chinese do it on purpose of course.
 

PORKER

Well-known member
The BIG Question HERE, just how much of that cheap melamine milk powder did we import for the pet food and milk replacer industry ?
 

MoGal

Well-known member
Ah well, add M&M's, Oreo wafers, Snickers, etc.... to that list... as well as vegetables.


http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/SE%2BAsia/Story/STIStory_286024.html?vgnmr=1

melamine tainted Veggies
http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Asia/Story/STIStory_285829.html
 

MoGal

Well-known member
I'm sure the USA will wait several months before they let us know about the chocolate........... after all halloween is coming up and then the holidays ..... mustn't let human health get in the way of corporate profits.
 

PORKER

Well-known member
China's contaminated food scandal widens
By David Barboza Published: October 31, 2008


SHANGHAI: Chinese regulators are widening their investigation into contaminated food amid growing signs that the toxic industrial chemical melamine has leached into the nation's animal feed supplies, posing health risks to consumers.

The announcement came after food safety tests earlier this week found that eggs produced in three different provinces in China were contaminated with melamine, which is blamed for causing kidney stones and renal failure in infants. The tests have led to recalls of eggs and consumer warnings.

The reports are another serious blow to China's agriculture industry, which is already struggling to cope with its worst food safety scandal in decades after melamine-tainted milk supplies sickened over 50,000 children, caused at least four deaths and led to global recalls of goods produced with Chinese dairy products earlier this fall.

The cases are fueling global concerns about Chinese food. In Hong Kong, food safety officials announced this week that they would begin testing a wider variety of foods for melamine, including vegetables, flour and meat products. On the mainland, Shanghai and other cities are moving aggressively to test a wide variety of food products for melamine, including fish and livestock feed, according to the state-run news media, which has in recent days carried multiple reports on melamine in animal feed.

In the United States, worried consumers frantically e-mailed one another on Thursday and Friday about the possibility of melamine-tainted Halloween treats following a spate of news reports that some candies and chocolates made in China or with ingredients sourced in China had tested positive for high levels of melamine or been destroyed in recent weeks as a cautionary measure.

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A spokeswoman for the Food and Drug Administration said the agency was adjusting a nationwide sampling of products for melamine "as necessary." The FDA, along with state and local authorities, have been sampling products in Asian markets since mid-September for traces of melamine.

"Thus far, most of FDA's testing of milk and milk-derived ingredients and products from China focused on human foods, but have included animal feeds as well," said the spokeswoman, Stephanie Kwisnek. "The FDA is currently re-evaluating its overall approach to keeping these products out of the U.S. market."

Asian food safety experts warned consumers not to grow too alarmed over the finding of tainted eggs because they contained much lower concentrations of melamine than the powdered baby formula that caused such widespread problems in China.

Hong Kong food safety officials said a child would have to eat about two dozen of the eggs in a single day to become ill.

Still, if eggs, milk and animal feed supplies are tainted, there is the specter of an even wider array of foods that could come under scrutiny, everything from pork and chicken supplies to bread, biscuits, eggs, cakes, seafood and candy.

China is also one of the world's largest exporters of food and food ingredients, including meats, seafood, beverages and vitamins.
Melamine was banned as an animal feed additive in China in July 2007. And last year, United States regulators put tough restrictions on the amount of melamine allowed in food products.

But interviews on Friday, and over the past year, with several Chinese chemical dealers who sell melamine suggests that melamine scrap, the substantially cheaper waste left over after producing melamine, continued to be added to animal and fish feed.

"I heard some melamine dealers still sell to animal feed producers," said Qin Huaizhen, manager at the Gaocheng Kaishun Chemical Co. in city of Shijiazhuang, though he insisted he has never sold melamine to animal feed producers. "In Shandong province many animal feed manufacturers buy melamine scrap."

Two other melamine dealers in east and south China said that only after the recent dairy scandal did government regulators begin to closely monitor the sale of melamine to animal feed producers.


Kidney experts said that there has been very little research into how the chemical disrupts kidney function. Dr. Fredric Coe, a professor of medicine at the University of Chicago, said that melamine is likely concentrated in the kidneys into crystals that the body cannot dissolve. Those crystals clog many of the kidney's nearly one million nephrons, which are tiny filtering units, in a process very different from the usual way kidney stones are formed, Coe said. Urination slows or ceases, and patients suffer acute kidney failure.

Some food-safety experts are perplexed as to how melamine was allowed to seep into China's food supplies after melamine-tainted animal feed exports from China were blamed last year for sickening dogs and cats in the United States, touching off international trade and food safety disputes between the two countries.
 

mrj

Well-known member
hypo, what do you mean, "hiding BSE"?

Who has "hidden" it?

Don't you believe SRM removal is effective?

If not, why?

mrj
 
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