They are among 36 held since probe into Sanlu Group began
A total of 31 provinces have set up special task forces to supervise the purchasing centres and implement more standardised practices. -- PHOTO: AP
BEIJING: Chinese police have arrested 27 people in a northern province during an investigation into tainted milk, which has made 53,000 children sick and tarnished the country's reputation abroad.
The 27 are among 36 detained since the authorities in Hebei province began investigating Sanlu Group, the company at the centre of the scandal, last month.
The investigation followed the discovery that the industrial chemical melamine, which is normally used to make plastics, had been added to Sanlu powdered milk.
News agency Xinhua had reported 22 detentions by Monday, and said those arrested were involved in a network that made and sold melamine and added it to milk.
Chinese President Hu Jintao yesterday called for the country's dairy industry to step up supervision.
His comments, carried on China Central Television, were his most public yet since the scandal broke last month.
'Food safety concerns the health of the public,' he told an unidentified dairy company official, as he toured dairy barns and milk processing facilities in eastern Anhui.
Four children so far have died after drinking milk tainted with melamine.
Police investigations in Hebei, where Sanlu is headquartered, showed melamine was produced at underground plants and sold to breeding farms and milk purchasing stations, said yesterday's China Daily.
The report said Chinese officials, on learning that the purchasing stations were among the key links in how the contaminated milk spread, have begun a national campaign to overhaul the system.
A total of 31 provinces have set up special task forces to supervise the purchasing centres and implement more standardised practices, according to the newspaper.
Milk purchasing centres began operating only in recent years, and the government has not yet set up a specific department to supervise them, it said.
A growing range of China-made products have been pulled from shelves across the world. One recall was in Hong Kong and Macau yesterday, after Anglo-Dutch company Unilever found melamine in four batches of its Lipton milk tea powder.
In South Korea yesterday, the Korea Food and Drug Administration said that two more snacks imported from China had been contaminated with melamine, bringing the number discovered locally to six.
Thailand also said restrictions on dairy products from China would be tightened, after two samples of milk powder were found to be contaminated with melamine.
