Asia acts to contain China's tainted milk
Japanese-brand cheesecake and cookies in Australia are among the latest products found to have melamine. Tests in China have revealed 31 more cases of contamination, the state news agency reported Wednesday.
Scandal spreading: A Filipino police officer inspected milk products from China Wednesday.
Aaron Favila/AP
Bangkok, Thailand
China's milk scandal is rippling outward in Asia, ensnaring multinational food companies that manufacture in China and raising fresh doubts over the safety of global food supply chains.
Many of China's neighbors have already banned or recalled imported dairy products suspected of containing the chemical melamine. Tainted Chinese milk formula is blamed for the deaths of four babies and for sickening tens of thousands in a scandal that was only exposed last month after being swept under the carpet during the Beijing Olympics.
On Tuesday, authorities said that 27 people had been arrested so far in connection with the case, as Prime Minister Wen Jiabao toured dairy companies in Anhui Province and told them to improve their standards, state news agency Xinhua reported. Tests posted Wednesday on the national food safety administration's website showed 31 additional samples of milk powder were tainted, according to the Associated Press.
In recent days, international food companies have yanked branded products such as Lipton's milk tea and Cadbury chocolates from supermarket shelves across Asia as local inspectors step up tests of dairy products that may contain melamine, which is normally used for plastics and fertilizers. On Wednesday Hong Kong announced it had found melamine in Japanese-brand cheesecake made in China, and Australia recalled a popular line of cookies.
Many of the recalled products contain only small amounts of powdered milk from China, which is a net importer of dairy products. A handful of babies have reportedly fallen ill in Hong Kong after consuming melamine-laced milk, but elsewhere the recalls have been largely preemptive.
