CHINA'S government yesterday announced 300 million yuan (S$64.6million) in subsidies for dairy farmers whose livelihoods have been badly hit by the tainted milk scandal.
Farmers in China's main dairy regions of Inner Mongolia, Hebei, Liaoning, Shanxi and Shandong provinces will be the main beneficiaries.
There is no danger of consumers buying these products because the milk powder was sold only to manufacturers while the Cadbury products should have been taken off the shelves since Sept 19, when the AVA issued a precautionary ban on all China-made dairy products.
During this temporary ban, the authority is testing hundreds of China dairy items and products that may contain melamine. Once found tainted, all stocks of the product are destroyed.
Even after the sale ban is lifted, fresh batches will not be cleared for sale until they pass checks by both the China health authorities and the AVA.
The three newly-identified items bring the number of contaminated products found here to 13.
All have relatively low melamine levels. An adult weighing 60kg, for instance, will have to eat 108 pieces of the coffee-flavoured Cadbury Choclairs every day of his life to be in any danger.
The AVA said the batch of Panda Dairy milk powder which tested positive was imported in January and intended for the production of chocolate blocks for overseas markets.
It added that none of it has gone into food items produced here.
A Cadbury Singapore spokesman told The Straits Times recently that all its chocolate came from Australia, but she admitted yesterday that while the company's chocolate is from Down Under, as well as the United Kingdom and Malaysia, some of its candies are from China.
Meanwhile, some retailers have begun putting back on shelves previously withdrawn food items.
Last week, hypermarket chain Giant recalled two products which, although made elsewhere, were suspected of containing China dairy products. But one item, Pei Tian Cream Biscuit, will be back on the shelves from Monday after its importer proved it was free of China dairy products.
Sheng Siong Supermarket, which also recalled all its stocks of M&M candies, put back on the shelves those made in the United States two days ago.
The AVA has yet to release a list of items which have been tested and found safe to eat. Its spokesman Goh Shih Yong cautioned that even if random samples are found to be melamine-free, they are not representative of 'all possibly affected batches' and thus would not be given the all-clear just yet.
'The AVA will only release the products for sale when we are very sure that it is safe for consumption,' he added.
Singapore is one of many countries hit by a food scare originating in China, where dairy suppliers added melamine to milk to boost its protein content.
In China, tainted products have killed four people, and nearly 47,000 children have been hospitalised with kidney problems.
Consumers in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan have been similarly hit.
