Almost 13,000 Chinese babies are in hospital after consuming tainted baby milk, and a further 40,000-plus have been treated, in a scandal which yesterday led to the resignation of the head of the country's quality watchdog, according to state media. The scandal, which began when dozens of babies suffered kidney stones and even kidney failure after drinking a popular brand that contained the chemical melamine, has since spread to more than 20 companies and affected products including fresh milk, yoghurt and ice-cream. Countries across Asia are checking imported dairy products from China. Brunei, Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong have already banned or recalled a variety of milk products. Taiwan banned all mainland dairy products on Sunday. In Hong Kong Nestlé, the world's largest food company, said it had recalled a UHT pure milk product after a local food watchdog discovered samples containing a tiny amount of the chemical melamine.
The scandal, which began when dozens of babies suffered kidney stones and even kidney failure after drinking a popular brand that contained the chemical melamine, has since spread to more than 20 companies and affected products including fresh milk, yoghurt and ice-cream.
Countries across Asia are checking imported dairy products from China. Brunei, Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong have already banned or recalled a variety of milk products. Taiwan banned all mainland dairy products on Sunday. In Hong Kong Nestlé, the world's largest food company, said it had recalled a UHT pure milk product after a local food watchdog discovered samples containing a tiny amount of the chemical melamine.
sneak the poison in with the 'good stuff', so peoples' confidence is artificially boosted, while they and their children (mostly the latter) are slowly killed. ~"When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate." Karl Jung~
So will china allow this go on for a week and then stamp on it.
After all, the govt doesn't want anything to interfere with the global image of china as the thrusting new superpower. Pictures of grieving parents accusing Party bosses of corruption doesn't look good. And seeing as it's the system itself that is rotten and makes this stuff inevitable, there's not gonna be any change. keep to the Fen Causeway
Jerome a Paris: forget about food regulation until the next crisis strikes.
Just like the financial meltdown on Wall Street, this food scandal is exceptional in scope and impact.
First of all, China is huge. Four times bigger than Europe or the USA, population-wise. Lots of people, lots of companies, lots of things to look over, in a ridiculously fast changing, churning environment. Food regulation is carried out locally, but there is growing central government involvement. And this scandal for sure will accelerate that.
Second, it's not liked developed countries like the U.S., Japan, Italy, and others haven't had, and continue to have, their own food contamination issues in recent years. And China is not even a developed country yet.
Third, as metatone points out above, this story is all over the media. Huge front page spreads on major dailies. They've started tamping it down on TV because of too much rage on internet bulletin boards. The government knows this is a big fuck-up, and just as they did already this year with the New Year's blizzards and the earthquake, they are choosing to tackle this problem head-on.
Helen makes a good point about how the government has shamefully smothered the school construction scandal in Sichuan, in part by paying off or intimidating parents into shutting up about it. And it would be a good bet that if this milk tainting were local and isolatable, they would do the same here; since it is so widespread, the government has no choice but to deal with it openly. That is obviously cynical of them.
But that does not change the fact that food quality is improving here, and although China still has far too many of these, it will have fewer and fewer of them over time, as an increasingly aware, demanding, and numerous middle class insists on better quality. And as the government continues to get sick of losing so much face in the eyes of the world. Point n'est besoin d'espérer pour entreprendre, ni de réussir pour persévérer. - Charles le Téméraire
China's population is definitely not "four times" bigger than Europe's, but slightly less than twice Europe's population, and 2.5 times bigger than the EU's. Point n'est besoin d'espérer pour entreprendre, ni de réussir pour persévérer. - Charles le Téméraire
