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Chinese official claims milk scandal now ‘under control’

China said yesterday its tainted milk scandal had been brought under control and recently tested liquid milk samples showed no traces of the toxic chemical melamine, as US and European consumer safety officials urged Beijing to better enforce product safety standards.

“There is no problem,” Xiang Yuzhang (項玉章), the national quality watchdog’s chief inspection official, told reporters in Beijing.

“It has been brought under control, more or less. There are no more problems in the market. As far as I know, there will be no more bad news,” Xiang said.

China’s quality control agency said on its Web site that 235 samples of carton milk and drinking yogurt produced since Sept. 14 and sold across the country had shown no signs of melamine.

But China could face an uphill struggle to convince its own people and those abroad that it has the situation in hand, as fears grow that compromised ingredients may have contaminated other Chinese-made products such as cookies and chocolate bars.

Australia issued fresh warnings yesterday for China and nearby nations in the wake of the scandal, advising its citizens overseas to avoid all Chinese-made milk products, unless companies have confirmed their goods are free from contamination.

Milk powder adulterated with melamine has sickened about 54,000 Chinese babies and is blamed for the deaths of four infants.

Speaking in Shanghai, where US and European officials were attending seminars on product safety, acting US Consumer Product Safety Commission Chairwoman Nancy Nord said China’s troubles with contaminated milk highlight the need for better enforcement of product safety standards in manufacturing.

“The melamine situation just underscores the message that we are trying to deliver, and that is you have to know what’s coming into your factory and what’s going out of your factory,” she said.

“One can always do more. We’ve seen reasonable progress in China, but there’s a long way to go,” she said.

Speaking at the UN in New York, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) said his government would use the crisis as a chance to overhaul safety controls.

China would “strengthen institutional development, and take seriously supervision and inspections in every link of production, truly ensuring the interests of consumers,” Xinhua news agency quoted Wen as saying.

“We want to make sure that our products and our food will not only meet the domestic and international standards, but also meet the specific requirements of the import countries,” he said.

Meanwhile, Sanlu will not recover from the damage it has suffered, its New Zealand partner said yesterday. Beijing has taken control of Sanlu, 43 percent owned by New Zealand’s Fonterra Cooperative, and shut down its operations, Fonterra chief executive Andrew Ferrier said at a briefing.
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