China tries to reassure public over milk scare

SINO DAILY

UN urges action to reassure consumers amid China milk scare
The United Nations on Friday urged concerted action to remove melamine from the food chain and restore public confidence in dairy products as China's toxic milk scandal deepened. "Food safety is not the sole responsibility of public authorities," UN health and food agencies said in a joint statement. "The food industry is also responsible for ensuring a safe supply of food to the consumer," notably small children, they said. Melamine-tainted milk has made 53,000 Chinese children ill and killed four, prompting more than a dozen countries to slap import bans on Chinese dairy products or take steps to curb consumption. "Restoring consumer confidence is critical," said Ezzeddine Boutrif of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). "Melamine-contaminated products should be removed from the food chain in order to prevent further exposure," he said in the statement, adding: "The safe supply of dairy products needs to be restored immediately." Jorgen Schlundt, a food safety expert at the World Health Organisation (WHO), said: "An adequate supply of safe powdered infant formula (is essential) to meet the needs of infants who are not breastfed." The statement urged countries to "closely monitor their markets" and to recall and destroy products "based on an assessment of the risk to human health." The FAO's Boutrif urged the food industry to "strongly invest in food safety and adopt a food safety culture covering the food chain from raw materials through to the final product."

by Staff Writers
Beijing (AFP) Sept 27, 2008
China on Saturday scrambled to reassure the public over a toxic milk scandal, announcing that nearly 50 Chinese brands which had been tested contained no melamine.

The government said it had tested 47 brands of milk and yoghurt and detected no trace of melamine, the industrial chemical discovered in baby milk powder that has sickened 53,000 children and killed four so far.

China's General Administration of Quality Supervision checked 296 batches of dairy products from the brands across the country's major cities, an official at the agency confirmed to AFP on Saturday.

"No melamine was detected," the agency said on its website.

The test was good news for China, which has sought to contain a scandal that has had global repercussions, with countries and regions around the world rushing to ban or restrict its milk products.

The European Union on Friday decided to stop all imports of baby food containing traces of milk from China, and Hong Kong ordered a recall of two products found to contain melamine, including a brand of Heinz baby food.

Japan meanwhile has ordered firms which import dairy products from China to test them for melamine after the chemical -- which is normally used to make plastics -- was found in four items made by one of its leading food makers.

In China, where more than 7,000 tonnes of tainted dairy products had already been removed from shops across the country, a popular candy brand became the latest victim on Friday.

The maker of White Rabbit sweets, given to US president Richard Nixon on a landmark 1972 trip, announced it was halting domestic sales after its products were found to contain melamine.

"Currently, it is extremely important to restore consumer confidence in the country's milk product brands," Chen Deming, Commerce Minister, said Saturday in a statement on the central government website.

"This can only be achieved through our efforts, through effective monitoring and detection."

New cases of children falling ill after drinking tainted milk also continued to emerge in China, with 176 new cases detected in the capital, the Beijing Times reported Saturday.

Authorities in Shanghai also revealed that about five percent of children under three in the city had showed symptoms of possible kidney stones after being fed contaminated milk powder, the China Daily said Friday.

A hospital in Taiwan said three young children had developed kidney stones after drinking Chinese milk formula, and the mother of one of the children had also fallen ill.

Hong Kong has reported five cases of children falling ill from drinking tainted milk, in the only other cases reported outside mainland China so far.

Chinese scientists said they were developing a chemical substance that could detect melamine fast and cheaply, and could be used by any dairy farmer, the official Xinhua news agency reported Saturday.

Professors at Lanzhou University in northwest China told Xinhua a dose of the reagent could detect traces of melamine in 20 minutes and would only cost 20 yuan (3 dollars), compared to the longer process of laboratory testing.

The university is to develop the reagent at the request of the government in Gansu province.

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SINO DAILY

Brazil's Vale: price talks won't hurt iron ore exports to China

Rio De Janeiro (AFP) Sept 26, 2008
Brazilian mining and metals giant Vale said Friday its price talks with China will not affect iron ore exports to that nation, after the company unexpectedly decided to renegotiate its contracts with Asian clients.

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