Poisoned milk crisis grows in China

China’s poisoned powdered milk scandal widened today after liquid milk from three of the country’s leading dairies was found to be contaminated.

The crisis was thought to have been initially confined to the powdered infant formula, blamed for four baby deaths and illnesses in 6,200 others.

But about 10% of liquid milk samples taken from Mengniu Dairy Group and Yili Industrial Group – China’s two largest dairies – contained melamine, according to a government inspectors. Milk from Shanghai-based Bright Dairy also showed traces.

Major Hong Kong grocery chains PARKnSHOP and Wellcome immediately withdrew all liquid milk by Mengniu from shelves. A day earlier, Hong Kong recalled milk, yoghurt, ice cream and other products made by Yili.

Starbucks said its 300 cafes in mainland China had scrapped milk supplied by Mengniu adding that no staff or customers had fallen ill from the milk.

Earlier this week, Mengniu’s chief executive officer Niu Gensheng vowed to create a clean dairy product market, saying “if this thing cannot be properly dealt with, I’ll resign.”

The scandal began with complaints over milk powder by the Sanlu Group , one of China’s best-known and most respected brands, but it quickly became a much larger issue as government tests found that one-fifth of the companies producing baby milk powder had melamine in their products.

Although most of the dairy products involved were only sold domestically, two of the companies exported their products to five countries in Asia and Africa.

Thousands of worried parents have filled hospitals, many watching over sons and daughters on intravenous drips after drinking milk powder tainted with the melamine, a toxic industrial chemical that can cause kidney stones and lead to kidney failure.

Some 1,300 babies, mostly new-born, remain in hospital, with 158 suffering from acute kidney failure.

Questions continued about the handling of the scandal by milk producer Sanlu and government officials.

The company reportedly received complaints about its formula as early as March and tests revealed the contamination by early August, just before the Olympics. Sanlu went public with a recall on September 11 after its New Zealand stakeholder told the New Zealand government, which then informed the Chinese government.

Melamine has no nutritional value but is high in nitrogen, making products with it appear to have a higher protein content. Suppliers trying to cut costs are believed to have added the toxic chemical to watered-down milk.

Police in northern China’s Hebei province, where Sanlu is based, arrested 12 more people yesterday, bringing the total to 18. Police said six suspects allegedly sold melamine, while the others were accused of adding the chemical to milk.

The widening crisis has raised questions about the effectiveness of tighter controls China promised after a series of food safety scares in recent years over contaminated seafood, toothpaste and a pet food ingredient tainted with melamine. In 2004, more than 200 Chinese infants suffered malnutrition and at least 12 died after being fed phoney formula that contained no nutrients.

Today regulators for consumer product safety in the US, European Union, and China met to announce a joint initiative on consumer safety issues.

“The situation underscores the need for these kinds of conversations. We must have confidence that we can reach out to our Chinese and EU counterparts ... whenever we encounter problems,” said Nancy Nord, acting chairman of the US Consumer Product Safety Commission.