Updates on Chinese Milk Formula Contamination -cont- #3

Here are news links to the Chinese Melamine baby milk contamination:

China: Feed makers defied rule in adding chemical Animal feed makers deliberately added an industrial chemical to their products, ignoring a year-old government rule meant to protect China's food supply, a government official said. Inspection teams have descended on feed makers nationwide in a "punishment" campaign to ferret out those found using excessive amounts of the chemical melamine. Among the quarter of a million feed-makers and animal breeding farms inspected, inspectors found more than 500 engaged in illegal or questionable practices, with police further investigating 27 companies. Agriculture Ministry official Wang Zhicai, likened the behavior of some of the companies to organized crime, calling them "black nests of gangsters." (AP, 11/01/2008)

Chinese melamine scandal widens The toxic chemical melamine is probably being routinely added to Chinese animal feed, state media has reported. The feed industry seems to have acquiesced to agree on using the chemical to reduce production costs while maintaining the protein count for quality inspections," the state-run China Daily said in an editorial. The practice of mixing melamine into animal feed is an "open secret" in the industry, the Nanfang Daily reported. (BBC, 10/31/2008)

China melamine scandal prompts mass chicken cull A rash of cases involving melamine-tainted eggs exported to Hong Kong and South Korea, and sold in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou, have aroused fears of how prevalent the compound is in Chinese animal feed. Melamine was banned in feed last year in the wake of a pet food scandal that was blamed for the deaths of dogs and cats in the United States last year, but has since been found in chicken feed used by major egg producers in northern China. (Reuters-India, 10/31/2008)

China vows penalties as melamine eggs scare spreads Chinese eggs have now come under the spotlight, after Hong Kong food safety authorities over the weekend found melamine-tainted eggs produced by Hanwei Group in the northeastern port city of Dalian on local shelves. The tested batch of "Ciyunxiang" eggs, produced by Green Living Beings Development Center based in China's northern Shanxi province, contained 3.5 mg in every kg.(Reuters, 10/29/2008)

Chinese kids on melamine milk develop crystals: WHO Some children who have fallen ill in China after being fed milk formula that had been contaminated with melamine have developed "crystals" in their kidneys, a WHO food safety expert said on Tuesday. "Our understanding is that these are not normal kidney stones because they are not being detected via all of the tools that one uses to detect kidney stones, so some are not showing up on x-rays," said Anthony Hazzard, regional advisor for food safety at the World Health Organization. (Reuters, 10/28/2008)

RP bans melamine-tainted biscuit The Department of Health on Monday banned Sunflower Crackers Blueberry Cream Sandwich after receiving a foreign report that the biscuit contains melamine, an industrial chemical that can cause kidney failure. The biscuit, manufactured in the Philippines by Croley Foods Manufacturing Corp., tested positive for melamine after undergoing tests conducted by the Hong Kong Center for Food Safety. According to the center, Sunflower Crackers Blueberry Cream Sandwich has a high melamine content of 3.2 parts per million. (Manilla Times, 10/28/2008)

China’s Milking Cows The plight of dairy farmers have become so serious that authorities now fear that if they are forced to slaughter their cows, it will trigger a collapse of the mainland dairy industry. Official figures from Hebei show that from September 14-16, about 5,900 tonnes of raw milk were dumped because major dairy companies stopped buying fresh supplies. Similar cases have been reported in all the major milk-producing regions in the country. The central government has set aside 300 million yuan ($43.9 million) in subsidies for dairy farmers. According to the health ministry, the subsidies will mainly go to dairy farmers who suffered the greatest financial losses in the five major dairy-producing provinces of Hebei, Liaoning, Shanxi, Shandong and Henan, as well as the Inner Mongolia autonomous region. (MySinchew.com, 10/26/2008)

Tainted Eggs From China Discovered in Hong Kong Hong Kong food inspectors have found eggs imported from northeast China to be contaminated with high levels of melamine. In addition, scientists in China worry that in addition to being used to adulterate dairy supplies, melamine may have been intentionally added to animal feed in China, according to a report published on Sunday in South China Morning Post. Tainted chicken and possibly fish and hog feed could result in poisonous meat and seafood, it said. (New York Times, 10/26/2008)

Nearly quarter of Beijing infants fed tainted milk: report Nearly one quarter of Beijing families have fed their children milk contaminated with the industrial chemical melamine, state press reported Sunday. In an indication of the scale of the tainted milk scandal that has rocked the country, more than 74,000 of nearly 308,000 households questioned in the capital said their children were fed the products before they were taken off the shelves, the Beijing News reported. (AFP 10/26/2008)

1,500 Chinese raccoon dogs die from tainted feed Some 1,500 dogs bred for their raccoon-like fur have died after eating feed tainted with melamine, a veterinarian said Monday, raising questions about how widespread the industrial chemical is in China's food chain. The raccoon dogs, a breed native to east Asia whose fur is used to trim coats and other clothing, died of kidney failure after eating the tainted feed, said Zhang Wenkui, a veterinary professor at Shenyang Agriculture University. "First, we found melamine in the dogs' feed, and second, I found that 25 percent of the stones in the dogs' kidneys were made up of melamine." Zhang did not give the company's name but the newspaper report said the feed was produced by Harbin Hualong Feed Co. (AP, 10/20/2008)