Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) requested yesterday that all products from China’s Sanlu Group, which was found to have added a toxic chemical to its milk powder, be immediately barred from Taiwan and vowed to impose stricter screening procedures on other milk products from China.
Liu said the producer’s addition of chemicals into its milk powder products was unacceptable, Cabinet Spokeswoman Vanessa Shih (史亞平) told reporters later yesterday.
Shih said the premier had also requested that the Department of Health continue to track down the contaminated powder and that it seize and destroy the powder to prevent the product from threatening the health of Taiwanese.
PHOTO: LO CHENG-MING, TAIPEI TIMES
The department said yesterday at noon that part of the 25 tonnes of milk powder imported to Taiwan had been used as an additive in instant coffee, flavored milk, cakes and bread. The department said it had so far located about 70 percent of the milk powder.
Shih said government agencies had taken emergency measures — including obtaining information about the company that imported the milk powder — as soon as the Straits Exchange Foundation learned of the problem from its Chinese counterpart, the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait, on Friday.
Although the milk powder imported to Taiwan was only used as a food additive, the premier urged the department to complete tests to prevent public panic because of a lack of information, Shih said.
Taipei City’s Health Department said yesterday that 14 packs of the milk powder had been sold to 14 bakeries, of which 11 were used to make cakes and breads.
Another three packs had yet to be used by food companies or bakeries and would be reclaimed and destroyed by the department, said Chiang Yu-mei (姜郁美), director of the department’s Food and Drug Division.
Chiang said the cakes and breads made with the milk powder may have already been sold to customers. However, the milk powder only accounted for 2 percent to 3 percent of products and did not pose an immediate health risk.
People who worry about having consumed food containing the milk powder can drink more water to reduce the risks of developing kidney stones, she said.
Aside from Sanlu, the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) requested yesterday that other Chinese dairy companies either provide testing reports from the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (中國質量檢驗局) to prove that their products do not contain melamine, or that their products pass department inspections on a batch by batch basis before receiving approval to enter the local market.
“We are now putting a temporary ban on Sanlu Group products and will not lift that ban until public concerns are addressed,” ministry deputy minister John Deng (鄧振中) said at a press conference yesterday.
The Bureau of Standards, Metrology and Inspection said the incident was likely the result of human activity and did not involve residual contamination during the production process.
Almost 15,000 tonnes of Chinese milk powder, with an import value of US$49.86 million, were imported to Taiwan from the beginning of last year until the end of June this year, the Bureau of Foreign Trade said.
Forty-one batches of food products from China were disqualified in the first six months of this year. Of these, Chinese white shrimp, which continuously failed to meet food safety requirements, have been temporarily banned from import, a ministry report showed.
China vowed yesterday to improve its food safety supervision after confirming that 432 babies suffered from kidney stones and at least one died after drinking contaminated milk powder.
The Hong Kong-based Sing Tao daily reported that more than 30,000 babies were affected and that 19 individuals had been arrested in connection with the case.
An efficient system should be set up to combine efforts of various ministries and bring food safety supervision “to a new level,” Xinhua news agency reported, citing Chinese Health Minister Gao Qiang (高強).
Gao said on Saturday that kidney stones had been found in 432 babies nationwide since China was rattled by its most recent product quality scandal.
The number was sharply up from figures reported earlier that put the number of affected babies at about 150, with one dead. Kidney stones are rare in babies and can block their urinary tracts.
The State Administration of Industry and Commerce, an agency in charge of enforcing discipline in the marketplace, issued a strongly worded statement calling for thorough inspections of sales outlets for baby milk powder.
“We require further strengthening of supervision and management of the market for baby milk powder,” the administration said in the statement, posted on the Chinese government’s Web site.
“We will strike hard against the illegal practice of selling fake milk powder,” it said.
Shops across China, including global retailing giants Wal-Mart and Carrefour, pulled the milk powder from their shelves on Friday after Sanlu issued a nationwide recall.
Sanlu added melamine, a chemical used to make plastics, glues and other products, to the milk powder in order to ensure that the protein content was up to standard, Gao said.
Melamine was also found last year in large amounts of US pet foods containing Chinese-made additives.
The renewed focus on Chinese product safety standards comes at an awkward time when the Asian giant is seeing its trade surplus shrink and can ill afford questions about the quality of its exports.
While the trade surplus hit a monthly high of US$28.7 billion last month, it nevertheless dropped 6.2 percent in the first eight months of the year from the same period last year.
The US Food and Drug Administration has already alerted US markets to beware of Chinese-made baby formula and the WHO said it was monitoring the situation and providing “technical assistance” to China.
The Chinese health ministry said the milk powder had not been exported, except for a small amount that had been sent for “food processing” in Taiwan.
Chinese officials have complained they were not alerted until Monday of the tainted milk powder, even though Sanlu received complaints as early as March and its tests found melamine in the milk last month.
Shoddy and fake goods are common in China, and infants, hospital patients and others have been killed or injured by tainted or fake milk, medicines, liquor and other products.
In 2004, at least 13 babies in the eastern province of Anhui Province died after drinking fake milk powder that investigators found had no nutritional value. The scandal prompted government efforts to strengthen monitoring of food safety.
Chinese investigators were looking into how and why the melamine was added to the milk.
Gao said it might have been done to fool quality tests after water was added to fraudulently increase the milk’s volume.
Melamine, used in plastics and other products, is rich in nitrogen, and standard tests for protein in food ingredients measure nitrogen levels. Gao said Chinese law bans its use in food, adding that Beijing was sending experts to treat the hundreds of sick babies and would pay for their care.
“We are confident that with timely diagnosis and treatment, these infant patients will recover soon,” he said.
New Zealand dairy giant Fonterra said yesterday it had known since last month that the Chinese firm it part-owns was selling contaminated milk now linked to the sickness of more than 400 babies and at least one death.
Fonterra, which owns 43 percent of Sanlu Group, said the company was seeking a meeting with the Chinese government to discuss the issue.
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