BEIJING: Chinese health inspectors have found the chemical melamine in liquid milk and yoghurt sold by three leading companies, following a scandal over tainted milk powder that has killed at least four infants, the government said yesterday.
The inspectors found melamine contamination in 24 out of 1,202 batches of fresh milk, long-life milk and yoghurt tested this week, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said on its website.
The administration said the tainted products were from the Yili, Mengniu and Bright Dairy companies, all leading dairy-produce brands sold in supermarkets across China.
The administration ordered the companies to recall contaminated products, and many supermarket milk shelves in Beijing were already empty on Thursday.
It said the tainted liquid milk would not pose any threat to a healthy adult, but more than 6,200 infants nationwide fell ill after consuming powdered milk containing melamine.
The highest level of melamine in liquid milk was found in Bright Dairy milk, which contained 8.6 milligrams of melamine per liter.
Melamine is used as a binding agent and coating for particle, fibre and laminated board. It is also used to make fertilizer.
The growing scandal over tainted milk products has prompted tens of thousands of parents to rush to hospitals for health checks on their children, especially in the northern province of Hebei.
Thirteen specialists at the People’s Hospital in the provincial capital, Shijiazhuang, have examined the kidneys of an average of 500 children per day over the past week, the official Xinhua news agency said.
Meanwhile, Starbucks stopped serving milk in many of its Chinese outlets yesterday as the crisis spiralled.
The move by the US coffee chain came amid a government-ordered mass recall of dairy products after an industrial chemical initially reported to be only in milk powder was also detected in regular milk, yoghurt and ice cream.
Supermarket shelves across the country were emptied of many products made by Chinese dairy giants Mengniu, Yili and Guangming after the government said melamine had been discovered in some of their regular milk.
Mengniu is one of the main suppliers for Starbucks, leading to the recall in two thirds of the chain’s 330 outlets in mainland China. “Though the milk we received from Mengniu is not included in the contaminated lots, due to the serious nature of this warning, Starbucks pulled all Mengniu milk offerings until further notice,” the Seattle-based company said in a statement.
“The safety of our customers and partners (employees) is of utmost importance.” Meanwhile, supermarkets were facing similar problems. “All problem products have been banned from our stores,” an executive at Jian-Mart, a popular supermarket chain, said.
The government agency in charge of product quality supervision yesterday issued detailed findings from a comprehensive national check, showing 24 of the 295 batches it tested from the three dairy brands were contaminated.
