Contaminated milk in China

CHINA launched an emergency crackdown on contaminated milk products yesterday after they were found on sale again despite a massive scandal that poisoned hundreds of thousands of children in 2008.

No one knows how many of them are still on the market, Chen Junshi of the country’s food safety committee said.

The sweep comes after milk products tainted with the industrial chemical melamine were removed from sale in Shanghai and the provinces of Shaanxi, Shandong, Liaoning and Hebei, the state-run Xinhua News Agency said.

At least six children died and more than 300,000 fell ill in the 2008 scandal, where melamine, normally used in making plastics and fertiliser, was added to milk to fool inspectors testing for protein and increase profits.