Massive Milk Mess In China
It wasn’t just pet food or powdered formula, as the BBC reports: Mass recall of China milk produce
Shop shelves in China and elsewhere are being cleared of popular dairy products after tests found contamination in regular milk as well as baby formula.
Inspectors found that 10% of liquid milk from three of China’s dairies was tainted with melamine.
Singapore banned the import and sale of all Chinese milk products after some were removed from stores in Hong Kong.
The scandal first came to light in milk powder that killed four infants and sickened more than 6,000 others.
Suppliers are suspected of diluting milk to cut costs, then adding melamine to make it appear higher in protein.
Melamine is an industrial chemical normally used in plastics, and is banned from food stuffs.
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China’s quality watchdog, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, tested ordinary milk from three dairies.
Its website said 10% of the milk from the country’s two largest – Mengniu Dairy Group and Yili Industrial Group – contained up to 8.4 milligrams of melamine per kg.
Products from Shanghai-based Bright Dairy were also contaminated, it said.
The Chinese seemed to have figured out the “American system” of food production – minimal regulation and oversight to maximize profits while living things die. If it was deadly in pet food, why would anyone think it wouldn’t be deadly in milk?
The only bright spot is that in China when corporations are caught doing these sorts of things criminal cases are brought and those in charge are executed. Setting up a gallows on Wall Street might curtail some of the problems we have been having.
Maybe we should have a few people sit in the galleries of Congress and the NY Stock Exchange knitting.
3 comments
Disgusting. And all I have to worry about with my dairy products here is spoilage. So far, so good… no store has attempted to sell me pre-storm refrigerated or frozen items. I may feel physically awful, but it’s not from consuming offal.
Of course, if McCain becomes prez, who knows what will go on American grocers’ shelves uninspected…
It is a shame the Chinese have imitated the American system of food processing and distribution. This probably will only teach a lesson to the folks they hang. The dog food thing evidently teach anyone anything.
The big stores usually have spoilage coverage in their insurance policies, so it would make no sense for them to take a chance. They are usually a source for the Red Cross and Salvation Army kitchens in the area. If it isn’t covered by insurance they can write it off as a donation rather than simple spoilage – the accounting is much simpler as they will have records for the IRS as well as some positive PR.
That’s what really ticks me off, Fallenmonk. After the pet food mess they knew what it was going to do and they did it anyway. The Chinese regulators knew what to look for when the kidney problems came up. Greed, pure and simple, and the people in charge deserve to be hanged because babies died.