Former chairwoman and general manager of Sanlu Group testified in court yesterday that she knew in May that her dairy firm's products were contaminated but notified the authorities only in August.

Tian Wenhua, Sanlu's former board chairwoman and general manager, stands trial at a court in Shijiazhuang, capital of Hebei province, Dec 31, 2008. [Xinhua]

Tian Wenhua, 66, and three other former top Sanlu executives on trial in the Shijiazhuang Intermediate People's Court face life imprisonment for "producing and selling fake or substandard products".

Wang Yuliang and Hang Zhiqi, both former deputy general managers of Sanlu, and Wu Jusheng, former manager of the firm's raw milk department, are the other three standing trial.

Earlier reports said they could be sentenced to death "for producing and selling fake or substandard food products".

Contaminated milk products of Sanlu and some other dairy firms killed at least six children and left more than 290,000 with urinary track ailments, including kidney stones. The products were contaminated with toxic chemical melamine, which makes milk appear richer in protein during laboratory tests.

Tian and her former colleagues faced a three-judge panel at the trial that began at 8 am. The hearing ended at 10:12 pm.

Wang entered the court on a wheelchair because he had "injured his legs". He said he suffered the injuries when he tried to commit suicide because he felt sorry for the suffering kids and their families.

According to the indictment, Sanlu first received complaints from parents in late 2007, saying their children's urine was discolored.

When the number of such complaints swelled in March 2008, Sanlu formed a team to investigate the case. By May, the team had found that the products were contaminated with a non-food chemical rich in nitrogen. Though it did not know the exact nature of the chemical, it sent a report to Tian.

The company found the chemical was melamine after she ordered a thorough probe in late July.

Sanlu then sent samples from 16 batches of its products to the quality inspection and quarantine bureau of Hebei province to test for melamine. It, however, did not specify that the samples were from its products. The results, issued on August 1, showed 15 of the samples contained high levels of melamine.

As soon as they got the results, Tian and former top executives of Sanlu held an emergency meeting to discuss how to handle the case.

Tian 'directly responsible'

On August 13, she received a notification from New Zealand dairy giant and Sanlu shareholder, Fonterra Cooperative Group, Tian said. It cited European Union standards to say the highest permissible level of melamine in milk products was 20 mg/kg.

All the defendants admitted that after the Fonterra notification, Sanlu restarted selling products that had up to 10 mg/kg of melamine. "We considered that amount safe," Wang said.

The government's allowable limit of melamine now is 1 mg/kg in baby milk food and 2.5 mg/kg in liquid milk products. But the levels were set after the melamine scandal broke out on September 11.

The indictment shows that between August 2 and September 12, Sanlu produced 72 batches of tainted baby milk food that added up to 904 tons. And it sold 69 batches of those products for 48 million yuan ($7 million).

A prosecutor told the court: "We believe Tian is directly responsible for the production and sale of the tainted products."

Tian's case was heard in a courtroom packed with 360 people. But most of them left the court before the hearing ended late last night.

Several media organizations were allowed inside the court during yesterday's trial, though many parents of children who fell ill were denied entry.

"Why is the trial closed to victims' families? We just want to know what's actually going on," said Wu Yanfang, mother of a girl who is suffering from a kidney ailment in Shijiazhuang.

"We just want to see justice prevail," said Zhou Jin, father of a child diagnosed with kidney stone from Hunan province.

(China Daily January 1, 2009)