After the maelstrom this past week regarding the melamine-tainted powdered milk from China, officials from the country's quality control agency announced yesterday that the situation is under control, Reuters reports.

"There is no problem," Xiang Yuzhang, the national quality watchdog's chief inspection official, told reporters in Beijing. The agency also announced on its Web site that 235 samples of carton milk and drinking yogurt produced since Sept. 14 showed no signs of the toxic chemical melamine, Reuters adds.

Despite the announcement of good news, this could still be a struggle for China to regain the trust of its people and those who import its goods — most especially because the country has had a history of covering up or delaying bad news. It initially covered up the 2003 SARS epidemic, according to Reuters.

This time is no different. An investigation has found that the Sanlu Group, the company responsible for the contaminated milk, began receiving customer complaints since December 2007. Officials also found that Sanlu knew about the problem since August — when Beijing hosted the 2008 Summer Olympics — but did not report it, Reuters says.

New Zealand's Fonterra, 43 percent owner of Sanlu, tells the Associated Press that it urged Sanlu to recall the product as early as Aug. 2, but the company did not do so until Sept. 11.

As of Monday, the number of Chinese infants hospitalized after drinking the melamine-laced milk formula has reached nearly 13,000. Of that, 104 were in serious condition and already four deaths have been blamed on the toxic milk, Reuters reports. Nearly 40,000 others have reported milder symptoms as the number of cases jumped to nearly 53,000.

Melamine, a chemical used for making plastics and fertilizer, was said to have caused kidney stones but could potentially cause more serious complications by crystallizing and then blocking tiny tubes in the kidneys, medical officials tell Reuters. The nitrogen-rich melamine was added to watered-down milk to fool quality checks that use nitrogen levels to measure the amount of protein in milk.

This is not the first major incident involving melamine in Chinese-made food products, nor is it a first involving baby formula. According to Financial Times, U.S.-based Menu Foods recalled 60 million containers of Chinese-imported pet food in March 2007. The pet food was tainted with melamine, which was linked to the deaths of thousands of dogs and cats. In April 2004, 13 babies from Anhui, China, died of malnutrition after being fed fake baby formula that caused infants' heads to swell.

This unfortunate event is a crippling blow to China's people, reputation and dairy industry as Sanlu is China's biggest maker of infant milk powder. China's food quality watchdog also found melamine in nearly 10 percent of milk and drinking yogurt samples from the country's three major dairy companies: Mengniu Dairy Co., the Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group and the Bright Group, Reuters reports.

"The incident is an embarrassing failure for China's product safety system, which was overhauled to restore consumer confidence and preserve export markets after a string of recalls and warnings abroad," the AP adds.

The Chinese government, in a rush to show its commitment to solving the problem, has made some high-profile arrests and forced the resignation of officials, including China's now former quality chief Li Changjiang, the AP reports. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao tells the United Nations General Assembly in New York that the Chinese government "is taking resolute measure to ensure product quality. We want to make sure that our products and our food will not only meet the domestic and international standards, but also meet the specific requirements of the import countries."

Back in Beijing, where U.S. and European consumer safety officials are meeting on product safety, U.S. officials reiterated the need for better enforcements of product safety standards in manufacturing in light of the recent milk scandal.

"The melamine situation just underscores the message we are trying to deliver, and that is you have to know what's coming into your factory and what's going out of your factory," Nancy Nord, acting head of the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission, tells the AP.

According to Agence France-Presse (via Industry Week) China insists that the tainted milk products have not reached Europe or the U.S. The World Health Organization (WHO), however, urged importing countries to enforce stricter monitoring of Chinese milk products, Reuters reports.

At least 12 countries have banned Chinese dairy products but WHO does not recommend "to just ban all Chinese milk products, at least not at this stage." WHO is currently in discussion with Chinese officials on strengthening its food quality system and says that local authorities need increased training to create a "more robust reporting system," the AP reports.

Resources

Chinese Official Says Milk Scandal "Under Control"
by Ben Blanchard
Reuters, Sept. 24, 2008

Nearly 13,000 in Hospital in China Milk Scandal
by Chris Buckley
Reuters, Sept. 22, 2008

Chinese Agencies Prepare for More Sickened Babies
by Trini Tran
The Associated Press, Sept. 16, 2008

Chinese Parents Panic Over Tainted Milk
by Teresa Yan
Financial Times, Sept. 19, 2008

China Pledges Firm Action in Tainted Milk Scandal
by Gillian Wong
The Associated Press, Sept. 24, 2008

EU, US to Step Up Product Safety Efforts with China
Agence France-Presse, Sept. 22, 2008

No Need for Import Ban on Chinese Milk Products-WHO
by Stephanie Nebehay
Reuters, Sept. 23, 2008

China's Food Safety Chief Quits over Tainted Milk
by Anita Chang
Associated Press, Sept. 22, 2008