Melamine again finds its way into Chinese milk products

Chinese police have seized more than 26 tonnes of milk powder tainted with melamine from a ice cream maker in a southwestern city, state media said, three years after milk tainted with the industrial chemical killed six and made thousands ill.

The food sector has been beset by poisonings and toxin scandals that have shaken consumer confidence. Numerous government crackdowns have apparently had little effect. In 2008, at least six children died and nearly 300,000 fell ill from powdered milk laced with melamine, an industrial chemical added to low quality or diluted milk to fool inspectors checking for protein levels. China said in March at least 20 percent of domestic dairy companies would lose their operating licenses following inspections of fresh milk and infant formula producers.

Read the full article at Reuters.com

China arrests 96 in connection with 2008 melamine-tainted milk scandal

"Caged" by Dave Nakayama, dnak@flickr.com

China, all too often in the news for toxic food and other products, is certainly taking some of these case seriously. Two people have already been excecuted in connection with the China's tainted milk, two others sentenced to life in prison.

This shocking scandal is particularly heinous because the manufacturers were using melamine, an industrial chemical high in nitrogen, to trick food regulators into thinking that the watered down milk, or milk products, were actually high in protein. Nitrogen is measured as a proxy for protein, which is difficult to quantify.

Read the full article by Sui-Lee Wee and Sabrina Mao at Reuters.com

Also:

A BBC report on "Chinese Fake Milk" from 2004

The New York Times on the ubiquity of melamine in our industrial and food system

Chinese Milk Scandal at Wikipedia