Singapore suspended the import and sale of all Chinese milk products last Friday after tests found samples containing melamine. -- ASSOCIATED PRESS
HONG KONG - COUNTRIES from Indonesia to Japan have announced strict checks and banned sales of Chinese dairy products to contain an escalating scandal over melamine-tainted milk.
The crisis, which has sickened nearly 53,000 children in China and killed four, has spread to more than 20 companies and affected products including chocolate, yoghurt and bicuits.
Mengniu stock prices plunge
BEIJING - THE stock price of China Mengniu Dairy, the company at the centre of China's tainted milk product scandal, plunged on Tuesday as the government pledged to crack down on a milk-gathering system that was 'out of control.'
One of China's biggest milk producers, Mengniu saw its stock price plummet slightly more than 60 per cent in Hong Kong trading on Tuesday after its products were found tainted with the industrial chemical melamine.
MANILA - A WORLD Health Organisation official said on Tuesday food safety authorities do not know how many countries have been affected by melamine-contaminated milk from China, and have warned against tainted infant formula illegally crossing borders.
Anthony Hazzard, WHO's Western Pacific regional adviser on food safety, said the International Food Safety Authorities (Infosan) network of 167 countries is still trying to get a better picture of the flow of tainted milk from China.
China dairy firm knew of toxic milk for months: state media
BEIJING - THE Chinese company whose tainted baby milk triggered a food safety crisis that has seen 53,000 children fall ill failed to report complaints about the product for months, state media said Tuesday.
Sanlu Group, the dairy firm first found to be selling melamine-contaminated goods, began receiving complaints of sick children as early as last December, state television said, citing a cabinet probe.
Brunei, Singapore, Cambodia, Indonesia, Taiwan and Malaysia have already banned all milk products from China while a number of countries have announced recalls of a variety of goods suspected of being laced.
Melamine can make milk and other food products appear to have a higher protein content than they actually do.
US coffee giant Starbucks stopped serving drinks with milk in many Chinese outlets, while in Hong Kong Nestle, the world's largest food company, said it had recalled a UHT pure milk product after a safety watchdog discovered samples containing a tiny amount of melamine.
Leading Japanese manufacturer Marudai Food is recalling thousands of products, while authorities have ordered importers and quarantine stations to scrutinise Chinese dairy products.
There were no reports of health problems from consumers, the company said.
Japan's association of prefectural governors asked the Tokyo government to temporarily suspend imports of all Chinese dairy products.
'The government needs to take measures swiftly,' the association warned.
Australian officials were testing China-made sweets for traces of melamine and scanning the shelves of small Asian supermarkets for other imports that may contain tainted milk.
'The good news is that no Chinese infant formula products are imported here, nor any major mainstream milk products,' Food Standards Australia and New Zealand spokeswoman Lydia Buchtmann said.
'We are just making sure that none of the contaminated ingredients have ended up in some of those smaller products,' she told Australian Broadcasting Corporation, adding that any unsafe products would be recalled.
Singapore suspended the import and sale of all Chinese milk products last Friday after tests found samples containing melamine.
'These products include milk, ice cream, yoghurt, confectionery such as chocolates, biscuits and sweets, as well as any other products containing milk from China as an ingredient,' the agri-food and veterinary authority (AVA) said.
AVA said tests first found melamine in samples of Yili brand iced yoghurt, and then in a brand of strawberry-flavoured milk.
Officials in Thailand said the kingdom did not import Sanlu, one of the two main milk formula brands that have melamine along with Mengniu.
But it said health authorities were on high alert and testing all Chinese dairy products.
South Korea said on Monday it would inspect about 13,600 tons of Chinese dairy imports this year, including powdered milk and condensed milk.
Cambodian authorities said they had banned the import of all Chinese milk products since Friday amid fears tainted milk could end up in markets.
A senior health official in Myanmar said they planned to seize and destroy all imported Chinese baby formula as a precaution.
Chinese products are widely used in military-ruled Myanmar, which is under trade embargoes from numerous Western countries demanding democratic reform.
In Thailand, a Food and Drug Administration official said health authorities were on high alert and testing all Chinese dairy products entering the country for melamine.
The Afghan health ministry says it has found that Sanlu and Mengniu are not in Afghanistan but Mother's Milk is to be tested and women have been urged to breastfeed. -- AFP
