Don't worry people, the food is O.K. it just has a little bit of radiation in it!
The thing about this that bothers me is they keep saying Radiation really is not a problem, I hope the Japanese people are not gullible.
ABCNews
Japanese officials have found abnormal radiation levels in several food products in the area surrounding the troubled Fukushima nuclear power plant.
The discovery came as the country was rocked by another strong aftershock just as officials said they were making progress in their battle to contain the nuclear crisis and cool the power plant.
There have not been any reports of damage and no tsunami warning was issued following the 6.1 magnitude earthquake.
Milk and spinach in the affected region has been found to contain radiation levels high enough to breach food-safety laws.
But chief cabinet secretary Yukio Edano says there is no immediate risk to humans.
"Even though you continue to consume these product for a year, a total radiation level that will be taken inside the body will be comparable to one run of CT scan," he said.
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Contaminated food found near nuclear plant
Thursday, January 13, 2011
China arrests 96 over tainted milk
No executions, Yet.
But 17 life sentences so far.
A big red handed Smackdown on those responsible.
(Reuters) - Chinese police have arrested 96 people for lacing milk powder with the toxic additive melamine, state news agency Xinhua said on Thursday, the same chemical that killed several babies in a milk powder scandal in 2008.
Last July, samples of milk powder found in northwest China's Gansu and Qinghai provinces had levels of melamine up to 500 times the permitted limit, underscoring the lax enforcement of food safety in the country.
Among those arrested, 17 had been convicted, including two people sentenced to life in prison, Xinhua said, citing a statement from the State Council's Food Safety Commission.
Thirty-eight people were awaiting trial, the report said, adding that Chinese authorities had seized 2,132 tons of melamine-tainted milk powder. The remaining 41 were "under investigation in police custody". It did not elaborate further.
Friday, February 12, 2010
China says "most" melamine-tainted milk destroyed
"Most" ?
I guess getting it all is just out of the Question .
BEIJING (Reuters) - Most of the melamine-tainted dairy products which have resurfaced in China over the past few months have been destroyed, and none has hit shop shelves or been exported, state media said on Saturday.
A number of cases of melamine in milk have appeared in the past few months, some of which appear to have come from old batches of contaminated powder that was never destroyed despite a scandal that damaged the reputation of China's dairy industry.
"Due to early discovery and timely checks, as of now, most of the tainted milk products have been recalled and destroyed, and none has entered the market or been exported," Xinhua news agency cited the National Food Safety Rectification Office as saying.
There have been no reported deaths or illnesses from the latest batches of tainted milk. About 300,000 children sought medical treatment, many with kidney stones, in the 2008 scandal.
Monday, February 8, 2010
China seizes more melamine-tainted milk powder
Here they go Again !
Not only did it happen once , which would be bad enough , but now a second time with the Melamine laced milk !
Some coming from the batches of Milk products they removed the last time , it was re-labled and re-distributed right back to the people !
BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese inspectors tracing new cases of contaminated milk have shut dairy firms in the northwest and seized 72 metric tons of milk powder tainted with melamine, an industrial compound that killed at least six children in 2008.
Nearly 100 metric tons of tainted milk powder may still be on shop shelves, the China Daily reported Monday in detailing the closure of a Ningxia firm that sold the product.
A number of cases of melamine in milk have surfaced in the past few months, some of which appear to have come from old batches of contaminated powder that was never destroyed despite a scandal that damaged the reputation of the Chinese dairy industry.
Tiantian Dairy Co Ltd in Ningxia was closed after it was found to have repackaged and sold 170 metric tons of melamine-tainted milk powder that it received as a debt payment, the China Daily said, citing the local government.
The paper did not say where the milk had come from. Last week, three people at a dairy firm in neighboring Shaanxi province were arrested for manufacturing or dealing in products laced with melamine, a compound commonly used in plastics or fertilizer but which can also be added to foods to show high protein levels in tests.
Another dairy firm, Ningxia Panda, was shut because of its ties to Shanghai Panda Dairy Co, which was closed late last year for selling products tainted with melamine.
There have been no reported deaths or illnesses from the latest batches of tainted milk. About 300,000 children sought medical treatment, many with kidney stones, in the 2008 scandal.
China executed two people in November for their role in the 2008 scandal that further sullied the made-in-China brand after a string of health and product-safety scares.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
FDA looking abroad to boost food, drug safety
TOKYO (AP) — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has expanded
offices around the world and heightened contacts with counterpart
agencies in order to improve product safety for Americans at home, a
senior agency official said Wednesday.
Globalization has
transformed the food supply as well as the manufacturing process of
drugs and cosmetics, said Dr. Murray Lumpkin, the FDA's deputy
commissioner in charge of international programs.
"What we now
recognize ... is that in order for us to do a better job at home, we
have to do a better job with our counterpart agencies around the
world," he told reporters at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo.
Over the last several months, the FDA has established its first overseas posts in China, India, Latin America and Europe.
"Itshows our agency evolving from a very domestically focused agency
historically to one now that realizes that it does have a place in a
much more complex regulatory world," said Lumpkin, in Tokyo for an
annual meeting with Japanese officials
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Senators express outrage over Chinese drywall
It may sound a little far fetched , but I begin to wonder if China Knows that it is Importing tainted materials and goods to the U.S ! It has happened more than once ! and nothing more than a slap on the wrist has been dealt to them ! Cyber warfare , tainted Materials , crap , and more crap ! Enough is Enough ! If this Administration was concerned more with the well being of it's Employers ( WE the people ) then they were with selling out this country ! they would Stop the import of Chinese goods !
Several U.S. senators expressed outrage over problems associated
with Chinese drywall during a Senate subcommittee hearing Thursday.
“We’ve
got a problem here and we’ve gotta get to the bottom of it,” said Sen.
Bill Nelson, D-Florida, who has been at the forefront of the
investigation into problems said to be associated with the material.
Sen.
Mark Warner, D-Va., expressed outrage over a federal toxicologist’s
comment that government investigators have felt sick after a few
minutes of being inside a home with Chinese drywall.
“I fear that we may just be at the tip of the iceberg on what could be a natural and national disaster,” he said.
The
Senate Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety and
Insurance conducted Thursday’s hearing to determine what health and
product safety issues might be associated with the high-sulfur imported
drywall.
A growing product liability crisis over the drywall may
include up to 35,000 homes in several states, with Florida being among
the hardest hit. Several senators said federal money will be needed to
deal with the problem.
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
China faces new melamine scandal
Some melamine laced Biscuits with your Breakfast ?
The thing that kill's me about this is that once it was discovered that there was a problem with their milk , they went after the ones responsible !
But some Assholes thought they could still get away with dosing up their product !
To me it shows that this is a wide spread problem in China ! Deceit !
Guaranteed the ones "Caught" will pay the price , The ones they don't catch , they certainly will continue to their path of deception !
....
BEIJING (Reuters) - More than 1,500 boxes of Chinese biscuits exported to Hong Kong and Singapore have tested positive for melamine as suspects in the protracted tainted-food scandal go on trial in China, local media reported on Tuesday.
The scandal has battered faith in Chinese-made products after a series of food- and product-safety scares and led to recalls of Chinese-made dairy products around the world. At least six babies died after drinking contaminated formula in China and hundreds of thousands fell ill.
Melamine is an industrial compound used in making plastic chairs, among other things, and is added to food to cheat nutrition tests.
Quality inspectors in Dongguan in the southern province of Guangdong found the latest contaminated biscuits after examining 13 batches of 4,800 boxes for export after neighboring Hong Kong, a "special administrative region" of China, and Singapore reported tainted samples, the China News Service said.
The tainted products had been destroyed while others were sent back to the manufacturer, it said. Investigations showed the melamine in the biscuits came from milk powder, it added.
Tian Wenhua, former chairwoman of Sanlu Group, goes on trial on Wednesday along with other three senior executives of the company that was at the heart of the scandal and since gone bankrupt, the Beijing News said.
By Monday, 17 suspects involved in producing, selling, buying and adding melamine into raw milk had gone on trial, the China News Service said.
Friday, December 26, 2008
China puts 6 on trial in tainted milk scandal
I do not like the Chinese government One bit !
But for what these Jackass's did I hope they are as harsh as they can be !
For the lesser charges I'm sure some Labor camp is in Order , And for the Heavy Duty Charges ???
....
BEIJING (Reuters) - China has put six people on trial for their part in a tainted milk scandal that killed at least six children and made hundreds of thousands of others ill, Xinhua news agency reported on Friday.
Two of the accused were tried at a court in Shijiazhuang, capital of northern Hebei province and headquarters of the Sanlu Group, the company at the heart of the scandal, the agency said.
One had produced and sold more than 600 tons of chemical melamine mixed with malt starch to the second accused, a dairy farmer from Hebei's Quzhou county.
Melamine is an industrial compound used in plastic chairs among other things, but has been used to cheat nutrition tests.
The dairy farmer then resold some 230 tons to milk collectors in Shijiazhuang and three other cities in Hebei, Xinhua said.
"Some collectors added it to raw milk and sold it to Shijiazhuang-based Sanlu Group, the country's major dairy at the center of the tainted milk scandal," Xinhua said.
After covering up the problem for several months, Sanlu admitted in September that it had sold melamine-tainted milk powder, causing kidney stones and other complications in children.
Sanlu, which halted production on September 12, has filed for bankruptcy and has some 1.1 billion yuan ($160 million) in debt, Xinhua said, citing the Shijiazhuang city government.
The Sanlu dairy group is partly owned by New Zealand's Fonterra group.
Both of the accused expressed remorse during the six-hour hearing, Xinhua said.
Four others went on trial on Friday in three local courts in Wuji, Xingtang and Zhaoxian counties, Xinhua said.
All were accused of adding the melamine-malt starch mix to milk and then selling it to Sanlu, the agency added.
The courts will announce the verdicts on an unspecified date.
Tian Wenhua, Sanlu's former board chairwoman and general manager, will go on trial next Wednesday in the Shijiazhuang Intermediate People's Court, Xinhua said.
Chinese authorities said at least six children died and around 294,000 were made ill by the milk formula.
The scandal battered faith in Chinese-made products, and led to recalls of Chinese-made diary products around the world.
($1 = 6.838 Yuan)
Saturday, November 29, 2008
FDA says ,feed your babies plastic ,Acid!
This is crazy , the FDA feel's that it is O.K. to feed babies plastic and acid , To me any "Acceptable level" is un-acceptable ! this is the same stuff that killed hundreds of pets last year , banned for pets it seems to be alright for humans!!!
....
Calls for national infant formula recall spread
(AP)
Disclosure that laboratory tests have detected traces of contamination in several major brands of infant formula generated concern and confusion Wednesday, with a national consumer's group and the Illinois attorney general demanding a Food and Drug Administration recall and the federal agency saying it had released inaccurate information on what chemicals were found in which top selling products.
As worried parents called manufacturers looking for guidance about the presence of melamine and a key byproduct in U.S.-made formula, the FDA reiterated its position that the baby food is safe and parents should continue feeding it to their babies, contending the extremely low levels of contamination do not present a health danger.
Also, a spokesman for one major manufacturer criticized the FDA for its release of the inaccurate information.
"We're getting inundated by calls from moms confused about the situation," said Pete Paradossi, a spokesman for Mead Johnson, one of the three major manufacturers of U.S.-made formula involved in the problem detections.
Melamine is the industrial chemical found in Chinese infant formula — in far larger concentrations — that has been blamed for killing at least three babies and making at least 50,000 others ill.
The FDA and other experts said the melamine contamination in U.S.-made formula had occurred during the manufacturing process, rather than intentionally as was done in Chinese production. The manufacturers insist their products are safe.
"The levels that we are detecting are extremely low," said Dr. Stephen Sundlof, director of the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. "They should not be changing the diet. If they've been feeding a particular product, they should continue to feed that product. That's in the best interest of the baby."
Part of the confusion Wednesday stemmed from the FDA's own statements.
While proclaiming that the very low concentrations detected of melamine and a similar compound called cyanuric acid pose no health danger to infants, the FDA has maintained it is unable to identify any exposure level of melamine in infant formula "that does not raise public health concerns."
Further complicating the situation was inaccurate data that FDA released to The Associated Press, which was first to disclose the formulas' brand names and other details in an investigative report Tuesday.
A spreadsheet the AP obtained from the FDA under a Freedom of Information Act request stated that Mead Johnson's Infant Formula Powder, Enfamil LIPIL with Iron contained traces of melamine.
On Wednesday, FDA spokeswoman Judy Leon said that spreadsheet contained an error — that the FDA had incorrectly switched the names of the Mead Johnson product with Nestle's Good Start Supreme Infant Formula with Iron. That meant, Leon said, that the Nestle's Good Start had melamine while Mead Johnson's Enfamil had traces of cyanuric acid.
The FDA said last month that the toxicity of cyanuric acid is under study, but that in the meantime it is "prudent" to assume that its potency is equal to that of melamine.
Problems with melamine-spiked formula surfaced this fall in China, where unscrupulous manufacturers intentionally dumped it into watered-down milk to falsely elevate protein levels. The concentrations in China were as much as 2,500 parts per million — about 10,000 times greater than what the FDA found in the U.S.
The FDA said there have been no reports in the United States of human illness from melamine. The chemical, which legally can be used in product packaging and a solution to clean manufacturing equipment, can bind with other chemicals in urine, potentially causing damaging stones in the kidney or bladder and, in extreme cases, kidney failure.
Mead Johnson spokesman Paradossi said he was frustrated that the FDA had provided inaccurate information for worldwide distribution by the AP. He said the FDA informed his company of the test results, as well as the inaccurate disclosures only Wednesday, during an emergency conference call the agency staged with major manufacturers and the industry's trade group. During a similar call Monday, the FDA told the industry about the upcoming AP investigative report.
Nestle did not returns calls seeking comment Wednesday.
At the same time, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan called on the state's public health department and the FDA to recall both the Nestle and Mead Johnson products — and urged the companies to take that step regardless of what any government agency does.
Madigan also criticized the FDA's handling of its test results.
"The agency apparently withheld the results of its testing from the public for over three weeks, and then only disclosed the information in response to a FOIA request by The Associated Press," she wrote in a letter to Michael Leavitt, the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the FDA.
As for possible consideration of a recall, the FDA's Leon said: "The agency would only seek to remove a product on the basis of a risk, based on scientific evidence. That's not what we're talking about here."
Consumers Union said that the FDA's assurances are of small comfort to parents and caregivers.
"The FDA originally said there was no safe level for these contaminants in infant formula. So this formula is contaminated," said Jean Halloran, the group's director of Food Policy Initiatives. "It is very disturbing to us that no recall has been requested."
She urged the FDA "to immediately make public all of the results of its tests for melamine contamination in food," even those with levels below what would trigger agency action."
Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., a frequent critic of the FDA, also has called for recalls.
During a series of calls with formula manufacturers starting Monday — put together hurriedly, according to several participants, as the AP was preparing to publish its story — the FDA has told manufacturers it has taken 230 samples of various products, including pediatric supplements and ingredients used in infant formula. Leon said that 87 of those samples are of infant formula, and that 77 of those have been analyzed.
Under the corrected information she relayed Wednesday, the results were:
_ Nestle's Good Start Supreme Infant Formula with Iron had two positive tests for melamine on one sample, with readings of 0.137 and 0.14 parts per million.
_ Mead Johnson's Infant Formula Powder, Enfamil LIPIL with Iron had three positive tests for cyanuric acid, at an average of 0.247 parts per million.
Separately, a third major formula maker — Abbott Laboratories, whose brands include Similac — told AP that in-house tests had detected trace levels of melamine in its infant formula. Those levels were below what FDA found in the other formulas, an Abbott spokesman said, and below any nation's safety guidelines.
The three firms — Abbott Laboratories, Nestle and Mead Johnson — manufacture more than 90 percent of all infant formula produced in the United States.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
U.S. finds trace of melamine in baby formula
This was bound to happen Here , with the outsourcing of everything , it is hard to keep track of what is going on !
Melamine, is not a food Item ,it is not intended for Human consumption!
Yet the FDA feel's that there is an acceptable level of the "PLASTIC" in your baby's formula !
They say there is no problem here , don't get exited about it !.....
But that is also what China said , Before their little problem !!!
....
WASHINGTON, Nov 25 (Reuters) - U.S. health officials have found trace amounts of the chemical melamine in one sample of infant formula sold in the United States, a Food and Drug Administration spokeswoman said on Tuesday.
"There's no basis for concern because we're talking about trace levels that are so low ... that there's absolutely no risk," FDA spokeswoman Judy Leon said.
Melamine-tainted formula was found earlier this year in China, where thousands of children fell ill and several died. In September, the FDA sought to assure parents and said there was no similar contamination threat in the United States.
The chemical, normally used to make plastics, has been found in milk powder, wheat gluten and other Chinese-made ingredients used in products ranging from pet food to candy.
Melamine's ability to make foods appear to have higher amounts of protein during testing has made it a cheap but dangerous substitute that can damage the kidneys.
But Leon said that was not the case with the U.S. infant formula, which in September was determined not to be made with any Chinese ingredients.
The new results "are most likely a result of the manufacturing process or what comes into contact with formula in cans. It's not adulteration and it's not contamination," she said.
Leon declined to name the manufacturer of the sample found to contain melamine. U.S.-approved makers include Abbott Nutrition (ABT.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) unit Mead Johnson Nutritionals and Nestle USA (NESN.VX: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz).
Industry trade group the International Formula Council sought to reassure consumers.
"Infant formula manufactured in the United States remains safe and nutritious," the group said in a statement. "U.S. infant formula products meet the highest standards and specifications."
Mead Johnson Nutritionals, the maker of Enfamil baby formula, said that by testing samples of its products and raw materials using published FDA methodology, it had not detected any level of melamine.
"We maintain stringent standards at all our manufacturing sites to ensure the high quality and safety of our products," Mead Johnson spokesman Pete Paradossi said.
'OUT OF STEP'
Leon said the FDA has deployed more sensitive tests in recent weeks as it has expended tests for melamine in all food products, including infant formula.
FDA scientists conducted two tests of the formula sample, one finding a melamine level of 137 parts per billion (ppb) and another measuring 140 ppb. A level of 250 ppb or less is considered a trace amount, Leon said.
But some consumer advocates said it was premature to say there was no risk for infants.
The FDA's earlier determination that 250 ppb of melamine was a trace amount was intended for foods other than infant formula, said Sonya Lunder, a senior analyst with the Environmental Working Group.
"This is out of step with what the FDA said earlier," she told Reuters.
"We need to have a zero-tolerance policy for contaminants in infant formula," Lunder said. "Babies eat only formula for months and months on end. They are exception vulnerable."
Leon said the FDA was in the process of determining what amounts of melamine pose a risk to infants and would release a public advisory later. In the meantime, parents should not change their babies' feeding habits, she said.
"We found one positive test on one sample at a level so low that it has absolutely no impact on the health of babies whatsoever," Leon said. "So there's no reason for any parent to be concerned for any reason."
The FDA was not yet ready to release results of tests of other food products, including dietary supplements, Leon said.
Monday, October 27, 2008
Chinese eggs found to contain poison
So I guess it's not enough to just put it in the milk and baby formula , now they have to feed so much Melamine to their Chickens that they are finding dangerous level's in the egg's ,Legal poisoning? It makes you wonder what we have been being fed from our farmers for years! They always said it does not do any harm to the end result of our food processing but now I guess it does! China news
....
The potentially deadly industrial chemical melamine has been found for the first time in eggs imported into Hong Kong from China.
The move has prompted concerns that the chemical, which can cause kidney stones and other renal problems, particularly in children, has contaminated more of the city's food supply than first thought.
Melamine, which is used in plastics and fertilisers, had previously been found in baby food formula marketed by China's dairy product giant Sanlu and is blamed for kidney and renal diseases of thousands of babies across the country.
The territory's Centre for Food Safety said it would test samples of all eggs imported from China starting Monday after melamine was found in a box of eggs from Dalian in northern China.
Tests showed the eggs contained almost double the legal limit of the chemical, which is believed to have been in feed given to the chickens.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Highly concentrated pesticides detected in frozen beans imported from China
Check your beans! more tainted food could be coming to your a store near you!
....
Japan today
TOKYO —
An extremely high concentration of pesticides has been detected in frozen green beans imported from China, and one woman who ate them became ill, a municipal government in Tokyo said early Wednesday. The public health office in Hachioji city said it has detected in the beans 6,900 parts per million of organophosphate pesticide dichlorvos, or 34,500 times the residue standard set by the Japanese government for imports.
The concentrated amount was nearly as much as an undiluted solution of the pesticide, according to the health ministry. The woman complained of numbing in her mouth after eating the product on Sunday, which she had bought the previous day at an outlet of Ito-Yokado Co. supermarket chain in Hachioji. The women, in her 50s, was hospitalized but recovered several hours later. Tokyo-based Nichirei Foods Inc imported 2,538 cases of the beans in question from a food maker in China’s Shandong Province in late July.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
more bad news for China
A rising death toll is not a good sign,especially when they are babies!
This is turning out to be more serious than anyone thought ,what is real bothersome is that China was not the first to Know! At least not the first to report it (again).
....
China milk toll may rise further ! BBC news
China's health ministry says the number of babies sickened by contaminated milk powder could rise further.
State media quoted the ministry as saying medical agencies were ready for a "possibly rising" number of cases.
A "multi-level treatment system" was being set up to cope, it said, amid increasing public anger.
Two babies have died and more than 1,200 have become ill after drinking milk powder which had been spiked with the industrial chemical melamine.
"Their number could rise as the search for more infants fed Sanlu milk food spreads across the country's rural areas," the China Daily reported.
"The number could rise sharply in coming days as more parents take their children for medical check-ups," the report added, citing Health Minister Chen Zhu.
The government has called the poisonings a "Level 1" food safety incident and formed an emergency team to grapple with the fallout, the Xinhua news agency reported.
But rising public anger, expressed on China's active internet forums, is prompting reports of a crackdown by the government on reporting of the milk scandal.
Sanlu apology
The company blamed for making the contaminated formula, Sanlu Group, apologised on Monday, saying that suppliers who sold the milk had apparently added the Chemical.
Normally used in the manufacture of plastics, melamine makes foods appear higher in protein, but has caused kidney stones in babies in several Chinese provinces.
Zhang Zhenling, Sanlu's vice president, did not explain why the company took so long to inform the public about the contamination despite receiving complaints as early as March and having tests confirm the presence of the chemical in early August.
News emerged of the problem only after a New Zealand company, Fonterra, which owns 43% of Sanlu, informed New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark, who then informed the Beijing government.
"The serious safety accident of the Sanlu formula milk powder for infants has caused severe harm to many sickened babies and their families. We feel really sad about this," Mr Zhang said, reading from a prepared statement.
Vice health minister Ma Shaowei warned on Monday that as many as 10,000 infants may have drunk the contaminated milk.
Mr Ma said that 340 children remained in hospital, and that out of these 53 were in a serious condition.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
China Detains 19 as Toxic Formula Sickens Hundreds of Infants
Nice to see China take some Action ,but I hope they give these Guys a fair shake and not just make an example of them!!! The New York Times
....
SHANGHAI — China said Saturday that 19 people had been detained by the police as part of an investigation into how baby formula had become contaminated with an industrial chemical. The formula is implicated in the death of one infant, and at least 432 others have been afflicted with kidney problems.
Investors on the New York Stock Exchange, where Lehman Brothers is traded, were wary of banks and insurers last week.
The government also said Saturday that the Sanlu Group, China’s biggest producer of milk powder formula, had first received complaints about its powder in March and had recalled some products but delayed reporting the problems to the government or the public.
Last week, the Sanlu Group recalled 700 tons of powdered formula, and on Saturday the government said the company had been ordered to stop producing and selling powdered formula.
In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration said that no infant formula from China had been approved for import.
Beijing’s highest government agencies ordered a “first-class national food emergency response” on Saturday, calling for a thorough investigation into the causes of the contamination and offering aid to infants suffering from kidney stones.
“This is a severe food safety accident,” Gao Qiang, the vice minister of health, said at a news conference on Saturday.
The government said that a preliminary investigation had determined that the infant formula had been contaminated by melamine, an industrial chemical that is used in some plastics. The government said it thought the melamine had been intentionally added to the powder to make it seem to have more protein.
Last year, the same chemical was found in animal feed from China that was then sold to pet food makers in the United States, sickening hundreds of cats and dogs. This touched off an international trade dispute and questions about the safety of products from China.
In interviews with melamine producers and sellers last year, several acknowledged that melamine was commonly used to artificially raise the protein count in a variety of foods, fish feeds and even dairy products.
Melamine, which can be created from coal, is high in nitrogen and for decades has been used by farmers to bolster protein counts in food and feed. Food safety officials in Beijing said Saturday that dairy producers could have used cheap melamine filler to make the infant formula powder seem far richer.
Last year, however, Beijing insisted that its food supply was largely safe. The government also started a nationwide campaign to root out food and product safety problems. It even executed the head of the food and drug administration after he had been found guilty of dereliction of duty.
