Poison Chinese milk panic spreads across Asia

Countries across Asia banned Chinese dairy products today amid a widening panic over contaminated milk.

From Japan to Thailand, reports spread of biscuits, ice cream and even meat buns that might contain milk blamed for four child deaths in China. At least another 53,000 others have fallen ill.

Growing public fears led some schools and stores to pull more products out of precaution. Even major international food makers were hit by unconfirmed rumours of recalls of numerous snacks.

Since the scandal broke earlier this month, at least six countries have banned or curbed imports of Chinese dairy products or foods that may contain them.

The World Health Organisation warned that the affected infant formula at the heart of the scandal might be smuggled across borders.

The crisis was initially thought to have been contained to Chinese milk powder laced with melamine, an industrial chemical used to make plastics and fertiliser that can cause kidney stones and lead to kidney failure.

But recent testing found melamine in samples of liquid milk taken from 22 Chinese companies – including the country’s two largest producers, Mengniu Dairy Group and Yili Industrial Group – and prompted nationwide recalls of milk and dairy products.

Anthony Hazzard, the Western Pacific director of the World Health Organisation, said Tuesday that 82% of the children made sick by the formula were two or younger.

He said a network of 167 countries organised by the WHO and the Food and Agriculture Organisation had been advised to focus particularly on smuggled formula. Health officials were still getting information on which countries may have received the contaminated products.

“I think the greatest fear is if there has been illegal movement of the heavily contaminated products rather than the legal movement of products that may have very low levels of melamine,” Mr Hazzard said.

Other countries – including Singapore, Taiwan, Brunei, Hong Kong, Vietnam and the Philippines – followed China’s lead with their own restrictions, recalls or bans on foods that might have mainland dairy ingredients. The limits covered everything from yoghurt bars to strawberry milk, biscuits and sweets.

Bangladesh even ordered testing of powder milk imported from countries known for tighter government regulations such as Australia, New Zealand, Denmark.

Malaysia expanded its ban on Chinese milk products to include sweets, chocolates and any other food containing milk.