Producers of 23 out of the 40-plus types of substandard milk
powder blamed for the malnutrition deaths of 13 babies in Anhui
Province have been found, the investigation team dispatched by the
central government has announced. Twenty-two of the people
suspected of producing or selling the product had been detained by
Sunday.
Three underground factories that produced the substandard milk
powders sold in Fuyang were shut down on Saturday morning by local
police and commerce officials.
The factories were located in Bengbu, Anhui Province; Zhengzhou,
the capital of central China's Henan Province; and Tangshan, in
north China's Hebei Province.
Milk powder with little or no nutritional value that was sold in
Fuyang City, Anhui Province, resulted in 171 cases of infant
malnutrition since May 2003.
Similar cases have been reported in Beijing and Guangzhou since
the deaths in Fuyang aroused nationwide attention.
Many of the babies harmed by the fake formula were the children
of impoverished, poorly educated farmers who have little
understanding of nutrition and the dangers of counterfeit
products.
Fed only the cheap milk powder, the infants developed swollen
heads and their bodies failed to grow properly.
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The Fuyang government began providing free health check-ups to all
infants under one year old yesterday.
The local government reports that babies suffering from
malnutrition may receive free treatment and families of infants who
died will be given 10,000 yuan (US$1,200) in compensation.
Beijing health authorities also reported a case on Friday of an
infant in the capital's Chaoyang District suffering from
malnutrition, with a swollen head but thin arms and legs.
Cai Changjing of the Beijing Health Supervisory Office said the
Aomeng brand milk powder that the infant was fed has little
nutritional value in terms of protein, fat, calcium and other
elements.
He said the municipal health bureau had ordered all supermarkets
and stores to stop selling Aomeng milk powder, which is produced by
a company in north China's Inner Mongolia.
The State Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and
Quarantine issued an urgent circular, directing local departments
to test the quality of milk powders, especially those for
infants.
Fuyang city had confiscated 21,912 bags of inferior-quality milk
powder and sealed 29,550 bags of milk powder by Friday.
Commerce authorities in Xi'an, the capital of northwest China's
Shaanxi Province, also confiscated 2,035 kilograms of inferior milk
products on Saturday.
In south China's Guangdong Province, local officials found only
68 percent of the milk powders in 19 major supermarkets met
national standards.
Experts said the milk powder incident serves as an alarm to the
central government and all local governments nationwide.
Each year in China some 17 million babies are born. About 20
percent of them are fed with milk powder.
Rural China, where supervision is slack and information is
insufficient, has become the biggest dumping ground for low-quality
and counterfeit food, officials said.
Local media in Fuyang first published reports about babies
suffering from malnutrition after being fed substandard milk powder
last April.
It was not until national media began to investigate and state
leaders took action that local authorities began to get tough with
those manufacturing or selling fake or substandard goods.
Officials dispatched by the central government to investigate
the case in Fuyang visited several victims over the weekend while
others continued the investigation.
(chinadaily.com and Eastday.com contributed to the story April
26, 2004)