The Great Chinese Milk Scandal

[Stuart]

This is by way of a news item and a public servcies announcement.

A major scandal (and by major I mean worldwide trade bans and people in China being sent for "re-education") has erupted over contamination of Chinese milk. It all started abouta month ago with reports of sickness in babies being caused by consumption of powdered baby milk formula made in China. Six babies have died (four in China, one in Macao and one in Hong Kong), 13,000 have been hospitalized and are seriously ill and 53,000 are less seriously affected but still sick. The primary sickness caused by the contaminated milk product is kidney stones that killed the babies in question. The sick babies are mostly suffering from varying levels of kidney failure.

What happens almost defies belief. It turns out that a major dairy had been diluting its milk with water in order to meet its production targets. By doing so, their milk would have less than the amount of protein required by the Chinese State Quality Assurance Board so to pass the necessary tests, the dairy added an industrial chemical, melamine (1,3,5-triazine-2,4,6-triamine), to the milk. Melamine is rich in nitrogen and its presence simulates proteins and therefore disguises the diluted nature of the milk. Melamine is also toxic, produces long-term kidney and bladder damage (including bladder cancer) and is a known primary cause of kidney stones. Children are especially vulnerable to Melamine poisoning.

The result has been countries across the world banning the sale of Chinese-produced baby formula. At this point the problem was containable but what happened next completely changed the equation. It has been discovered that Chinese liquid milk is also contaminated, in fact all 21 of the main Chinese dairies have been playing the 'dilution-and-melamine contamination' game. A huge range of Chinese products are affected, in fact virtually every product that uses milk products at some point in its production is contaminated with melamine, in some cases containing up to six times the maximum permissible dose. Such products include cakes, biscuits, candy, ice cream and a wide range of other food products. The "White Rabbit" brand of candy is particularly badly affected and is subject to what amounts to a worldwide sales ban.

The list of countries that are banning Chinese food products is growing hourly and includes most of Europe, the whole of the Far East, parts of Africa and the Middle East. The United States is banning them as well and that's led to another problem. It appears that a lot of food products made outside China use Chinese-produced milk as raw materials. It's even spreading to livestock that are fed milk products as dietary supplements. In fact, the Chinese apepar to have contaminated pretty much the whole world food supply. So, virtually all foodstuffs on sale in the US are being tested for excess melamine content. The problem is spreading to brands that have no apparent Chinese connection with fingers being pointed at Nestle products and Oreo cookies.

Believe it or not, it gets worse. As the FDA/USDA started its testing program by looking at Chinese milk, they found that Chinese milk is in fact contaminated with much more than just melamine. It has hydrogen peroxide added to increase storage life, emulsified vegetable oil (including peanut oil) added to increase apparent fat levels, and whey has been added to increase lactose content, all to disguise the original dilution of the basic milk. One FDA source has been quoted as saying "Chinese milk doesn't come from cows, it comes from test tubes." Probably an exaggeration but symptomatic of the scale of the problem.

At a guess, I'd say most of the suspect products have been pulled from the shelves of mainstream supermarkets by now but smaller and especially ethnic stores may not have done so (simply because they're probably never been told just how extensive the potential contamination list is.

**Late breaking addition*** - Add formaldehyde/formalin to the list of contaminants.

[Aaron]

Could I trouble you for a link or an article on the subject?

[Shroom Man 777]

It's all over the news here, mang. I mean, just recently, that White Rabbit candy (which is also popular here in the Philippines) even had trace amounts of formalin in it. Formalin, which is what they use to preserve the people-parts in my mom's pathology lab in the hospital.

I did not know that the unsafe health standards of China had ramifications that went this far. Goddamn China.

[Lusankya]

Just search through all the articles that you can google. There's too many to choose from.

[aerius]

Heard on the radio recently that Canada has pulled a bunch of Chinese milk products off the shelves, powdered milk was specifically mentioned.

[Stuart]

Sure, no problem

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080925/ap_ ... v3r11w24cA

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080925/ap_ ... Dytd1w24cA

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/st ... 02,00.html

http://enews.mcot.net/view.php?id=6445

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008- ... 110999.htm

http://www.hindu.com/2008/09/25/stories ... 001800.htm

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2008 ... ducts.html

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2008 ... lls.html-0

http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/index.asp

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/a ... 2003424186

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/a ... 2003424188

The story is developing and new news items are appearing all the time.

[Aaron]

Thank you and you as well Lusankya.

[Kane Starkiller]

We need laws that will require each product to have a list of all the countries which contributed components and ingredients not only the country in which the final product was assembled.

[ray245]

We need laws that will require each product to have a list of all the countries which contributed components and ingredients not only the country in which the final product was assembled.

Agreed. I hate looking at the food item beside me, and the only thing it say is manufacted in singapore...

[Colonel Olrik]

The list of countries that are banning Chinese food products is growing hourly and includes most of Europe, the whole of the Far East, parts of Africa and the Middle East.

Just want to add that Chinese dairy products and and food products containing dairy have been banned in the EU since 2002. The new rules only reinforce the surveillance and testing, as well as broaden the scope of the embargo to basically any kind of food. The E.U comission has come out to say that as far as they can tell, there's absolutely no danger to the population.

[Edi]

Moves to N&P, because this is certainly newsworthy, even if it does not have directly quoted articles. Definitely not just your run of the mill human interest story.

[Aratech]

Oh son of a....

Here we go again.

[Grand Moff Yenchin]

And in Taiwan Mr. Ma's* cabinet group is cocksucking the PRC by using Hong Kong standards of 2.5 ppm of Melamine. Citing instrument limits. Which is bullshit since a few days before they detected melamine in amounts ranging between 0.05~1ppm.

To compare, the standards for livestock feed in China is 2.0 ppm. In other words, the people in HK and Taiwan eat food with lower standard than pigs in China.


*In Ma's words to the PRC official Yunlin Chen: "You can call me Mr. Ma." Well if he doesn't want to act like a president, I fail to see how we can respect him as one.

[Darth Hoth]

No Swedish source that I am aware of lists that it extends beyond Chinese food. Are we just slow on the uptake or does someone have an agenda? (Sorry, I did not mean to sound like a Truther.) I imagine it will be a rough awakening when it does get out.

In any case, honour and thanks to Stuart. Very interesting.

[Lord MJ]

If anyone deserves the Death Penalty it's the screwballs that are responsible for this.

That Chinese Criminal Justice system's draconian nature seems appropriate in this case.

I wonder if even in the US if a company did something like this would the offense be serious enough to warrant execution.

I would support everything they could dish out excluding billing the family for the bullets used for the execution...

[RedImperator]

I wonder if even in the US if a company did something like this would the offense be serious enough to warrant execution.

I'm pretty sure this would qualify as murder one in the US.

[Stuart]

No Swedish source that I am aware of lists that it extends beyond Chinese food. Are we just slow on the uptake or does someone have an agenda? (Sorry, I did not mean to sound like a Truther.) I imagine it will be a rough awakening when it does get out.

I think people are only just waking up to how bad this situation could be. For example cake mixes often contain powdered milk and that's often supplied by the cheapest bidder. So, it takes time for all of the implications of this mess to sink in. I think also that the possible extent of this poisoning problem is such that people don't want to think about it.

IIRC there was a case a few years back in the US where insecticide got mixed up with cow feed and poisoned the whole herd. The poison was turning up all over the place, it found its way into milk; the cow bones were turned into bonemeal and that infected other livestock, it was one hell of a mess.

[weemadando]

It's been huge in the mdeia in Australia. I was disappointed when I heard that White Rabbits had been pulled because those things are awesome.

That said, a lot of people in China are going to be visiting the super-happy-execution-bus over this.

The main allegation that I've heard is that this was all known in June or so, but they tried to bury it to avoid bad press pre-Olympics, and it was after that time that most of the deaths and illnesses occurred. Add some more people to the super-happy-execution-bus queue.

[Lord MJ]

Candies, Cream, Milk, Beef from cows that consumed tainted material, ....

I'm just thinking about all the food I have eaten recently that could have been contaminated....

[Diomedes]

The whistle about all of this was essentially blown by the NZ government, after the NZ dairy company Fonterra, which has a 43% stake in the Chinese dairy company SanLu, came to them with their concerns. Fonterra had tried to alert local authorities in China when it found out SanLu's products were contaminated with Melamine but got nowhere with them, and it took getting the NZ govt to bring it to the Chinese govt for something to be done about it. But Fonterra's getting a lot of criticism here for being too slow to do so, or for not going public when it was getting nowhere with local Chinese authorities.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/4693139a3600.html

NZ officials blew whistle on milk scare
Monday, 15 September 2008

New Zealand officials "blew the whistle" on the sale of contaminated milk linked to the death of at least one baby in China, Prime Minister Helen Clark says.

The contaminated milk powder was sold by New Zealand dairy giant Fonterra's Chinese joint venture partner, Sanlu – raising fears the scandal could taint New Zealand's reputation in the massive market.

The Green Party is questioning why Fonterra did not go public with concerns after it yesterday revealed it had been aware of the contamination since mid-August, despite a full public recall only being initiated last week.

But Miss Clark today said Fonterra had pushed for a full recall at the earliest possible opportunity but had been blocked by Chinese local government officials.

"They have been trying for weeks to get official recall and the local authorities in China would not do it," she said on TVNZ's Breakfast programme.

Miss Clark said the first she knew about the issue was on September 5.

Three days later she convened a meeting of senior ministers at which she ordered officials to leapfrog the local officials and immediately inform their superiors in Beijing.

"As you can imagine when New Zealand Government blew the whistle in Beijing a very heavy hand then descended on the local authorities," she said.

"At a local level. . .I think the first inclination was to try and put a towel over it and deal with it without an official recall. That is never what we would do in New Zealand."

[The Duchess of Zeon]

At the least the punishment will fit the crime; the people responsible for this will be executed and their families billed for the bullets (Amy and I personally eat almost nothing containing milk except for actual milk, butter, and cheese, all of which tend to not involve random crap from China. At least, real cheese, and we certainly can't stand the fake stuff like Kraft).

[Guardsman Bass]

It appears that a lot of food products made outside China use Chinese-produced milk as raw materials. It's even spreading to livestock that are fed milk products as dietary supplements. In fact, the Chinese apepar to have contaminated pretty much the whole world food supply. So, virtually all foodstuffs on sale in the US are being tested for excess melamine content. The problem is spreading to brands that have no apparent Chinese connection with fingers being pointed at Nestle products and Oreo cookies.

The wonders of a globalized economy, eh?

Is this the Chinese agency's fault, for not realizing that Melamine can be used to fake the health inspection and checking for that type of thing? It's quite an oversight.

[Stark]

Except the oversight dudes were apparently tipped off they the NZ owners and did nothing; it's probably called 'corruption'. The real surprise here is that this is so widespread and ongoing and nobody was doing spot checks on imported goods to detect it. The list of negligent parties is pretty fucking long, if you ask me.

[Broomstick]

IIRC there was a case a few years back in the US where insecticide got mixed up with cow feed and poisoned the whole herd. The poison was turning up all over the place, it found its way into milk; the cow bones were turned into bonemeal and that infected other livestock, it was one hell of a mess.

Are you referring to PCB's/dioxin in cattle feed in Michigan? Or a different instance?

I actually went and checked my powdered milk - it's from Wisconsin, yay! Not so sure about my hot cocoa, but since I don't drink it often I'm not quite so concerned. I believe my other dairy products are of either Wisconsin or closer origin.

I still recall when I was purchasing frozen fish a few months ago when a "helpful" passer by suggested I buy the tilapia because it was half the price of the salmon. I pointed out that the tilapia was farm-raised in China - and I didn't trust food from China because of all the other product safety crap that had been going on. Well, there ya go.

We gotta stop this race to the bottom shit or that is exactly where we'll all be - at the bottom of the shitter. Greed, greed, greed - so much of what is wrong with the world today is greed.

[MarshalPurnell]

Had been watching the developments as they popped up on Drudge, but not really following the story. Definitely a lot worse than I thought, and it seems likely the Chinese are going to be executing people over it.

The timing could not have been worse. Last year's toy scandal means people are already looking warily at Chinese products from a safety standpoint, and there's more awareness of how much corruption there is at the local and corporate level in the PRC. Protectionist sentiment is gaining traction in the US and Europe (heard a radio ad put out by Obama coming home, bashing the PRC over 'broken trade deals' and outsourcing jobs) and these constant safety scares provide another compelling argument in favor of placing restrictions on trade with China. But with the financial markets in crisis the absolute last thing anyone needs is a trade-war, which can easily result if the situation is mismanaged or exploited for political gain without concern for the consequences. The Great Depression didn't become global before Smoot-Hawley kicked the world economy off a cliff, lest we forget.

There needs to be strong pressure on the Chinese to clean up their act, lest I be misunderstood. Given that it is an election year, though, I really don't expect any sort of productive reaction to this at all.