December 2, 2010

 

Tainted dairy imports stoke concern in China

China has reminded consumers, many of whom have turned to overseas-made dairy products due to melamine scare, not to believe blindly in foreign dairy items after 670 tonnes of imported milk products were found to be substandard from March to August this year.

 

The substandard imported dairy products made up 93.8% of the total unsafe imported food products found during that period, according to a report by the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine.

 

Among the substandard dairy products seized at the border, about 70% were baby formulas, and most of them came from Oceania.

 

Excessive fungi and heavy metal contents were the major problems, according to the report.

 

The administration said all the problematic products had either been returned or destroyed. None had been allowed into the Chinese market.

 

The country's milk products scandals in recent years have triggered a craze for overseas dairy products.

 

In 2008, baby formula tainted with melamine, an industrial chemical, killed at least six infants and caused kidney problems in more than 300,000 children across the country.

 

A year later, similarly tainted milk powder was found in Dongyuan-brand milk powder made in Northwest China's Qinghai province.

 

In November 2010, quality inspectors in Central China's Hunan province recalled 861 packages of contaminated dairy drinks, with each package containing 15 bottles. Further investigation traced the contamination to Dongyuan's case.

 

The increasing amount of substandard imported milk has been caused by the surge in imports of dairy products, analysts said.

 

The General Administration of Customs said milk powder imports exceeded 260,000 tonnes during the first seven months of this year, a 75% increase on-year.

 

However, the China Dairy Industry Association said that the disqualified milk products rejected from March to August were only 0.2% of the total imported dairy products and that there was no need for consumers to panic.

 

Meanwhile, China has also tightened the management of the production of dairy products, particularly baby formulas.

 

In early November, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine released a new regulation demanding that dairy manufacturers reapply for their production authorisation by the end of this year and saying that any company without a new license will be suspended from March 2011.

 

Wu Qinghai, chief of the food producing and supervision department of the administration, said in November that a panel of experts will start holding inspections on the current 1,600 dairy producers one by one in the next four months.

 

He believed a batch of unqualified producers will be expelled from the business.