Chinese tainted milk scandal kills babies, taints chocolate and cookies produced by US and UK companies

The Chinese government didn't want the world to know about the melamine-tainted milk that has poisoned 50,000 babies in their country and killed at least 4. Nope. They stonewalled foreign media and clamped down on their local outlets until they couldn't contain the outcries of parents with ill or dead children.

If not, it would have been, you know, bad for China's image:

JIAN Guangzhou of the Oriental Morning Post in Shanghai has received widespread applause for being the journalist who first named famous Chinese dairy brand Sanlu as being responsible for the nationwide milk powder poisonings of thousands of babies.

But it is a sorry triumph, because the reporting of China's worst food disaster of recent years -- with at least 53,000 babies suffering from kidney problems and four dying -- has remained constrained by party controls.

The first local media reports on the disaster were published and broadcast in July, but were not followed up. That was because a blackout was imposed.

The central party propaganda department delivered a 21-part instruction to all Chinese media before the Beijing Olympics, preventing any critical reporting to ensure a positive mood during the Games. The eighth clause stated that "all food safety issues are off limits".

So the milk poison stories were not to be reported until after the Games. By then, the crisis was so widespread it was impossible to suppress entirely.

But in the meantime, immense additional damage was done to babies' kidneys. For even though Sanlu's board was told about the disaster shortly before the Olympics, the poisonous products were not recalled until afterwards -- ensuring the Games remained a period of harmony and national pride.

Yet the problem is bigger than the Sanlu baby-milk scandal. Kraft, Mars, Cadbury are now recalling millions of chocolate bars, cookies and snacks made with milk produced in China and sold in Asia.

Not so in Indonesia who are finding melamine even in products not produced with milk :

What may have caused it? Lax-to-no regulation of the dairy industry. The Chinese have taken a misguided card from the US playbook and have left if up to the industry to police itself.

Both American food makers said they were mystified by the Indonesian test results, which reportedly found high levels of melamine -- the toxin that has been at the center of a widening scandal that has left four infants dead, sickened more than 54,000 babies and ensnared 22 Chinese dairy companies.

Kraft said none of its Oreo products worldwide, including those sold in Indonesia, are made with milk ingredients sourced from China. The Oreo wafer product that tested positive in Indonesia tested negative in Malaysia, Thailand and Korea, a company spokesman said.

Mars said its two Chinese suppliers of milk power were not among the 22 tainted Chinese companies. Mars's milk powder tested negative for melamine at a lab in Germany, while its candy tested negative in Hong Kong, Korea, Malaysia, Taiwan and Thailand, a spokesman said.

Both U.S. companies have asked for clarification and additional testing from BPOM, the food safety agency in Indonesia.

Oy.

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