3 October 2008 : New York Times (By David Barboza)
Dairy villages have been established by local governments for Chinese companies who control all cattle injections, milking and processing. Farmers take their cows directly to village milking stations where milk is pumped directly into station tanks. Melamine is a chemical used in plastic manufacturing that can be added to foods to artificially increase their protein content in testing. Its presence was detected in pet foods originating from China last year. Adulterating milk is hardly unknown in China. For years, experts say rice porridge, starch and other chemicals have been used to doctor diluted milk to earn extra profits. In 2004, at least 14 children died in a poor area of Anhui Province after consuming what the government later determined was a fake baby formula. The case shocked the nation and led to government calls for sweeping reform. “In 2004, I was one of the drafters of the China Dairy Products Quality Inspection report,” says Zhang Guonong, who teaches at Jiangnan University’s School of Food Science and Technology in Jiangsu Province, in a telephone interview. “I found adulteration is extremely widespread: urea, soap powder, starch are very popular additives.” He added: “We suggested new inspection methods targeted on these additives should be written into the regulation. But on the other hand, we fear that once these were written into the regulation, more dairymakers would know these tricks, or even innovate by creating new tricks.” Recent government inspections have also found high levels of antibiotic residues.
- Read article (free – registration required)
- more about melamine
