BEIJING - CHINESE President Hu Jintao called on Tuesday for the country's dairy industry to step up supervision and pay attention to product quality, a statement underscoring the top leadership's determination in resolving a tainted milk scandal.
The comments by Mr Hu, carried on China Central Television's evening news broadcast, were his most public yet since the scandal broke earlier this month. Milk products tainted with the industrial chemical melamine have been blamed for sickening some 54,000 children and killing four infants.
'Food safety concerns the health of the public,' Mr Hu told an unidentified dairy company official, during a visit to eastern Anhui province where he toured dairy barns and milk processing facilities.
'First, there is a need to improve supervision. Second, there needs to be stepped-up quality tests. We need to ensure that all products on the market are up to standard, so that consumers don't have to worry,' Mr Hu said.
The president noted there were lessons to be learned from Sanlu Group Co., which was the first Chinese dairy company found to be selling contaminated baby formula.
Tests later showed that the problem was widespread in the Chinese dairy industry and 22 companies were found to have sold products laced with melamine.
Police have arrested 27 people in connection with the scandal, the state-run China News Service reported on Tuesday.
The official Xinhua News Agency said on Monday that authorities had detained 22 people accused of involvement in a network that produced, sold and added melamine to milk.
Officials believed suppliers trying to boost output diluted their milk with water while adding melamine, because its nitrogen content can fool tests aimed at verifying protein content.
Melamine can cause kidney stones, leading to kidney failure.
