Milk produced by 65 brands in China has been approved as safe by the country’s quality inspector.
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More than 400 batches of liquid milk from 22 cities contained no melamine, the industrial chemical found in batches of the country’s milk powder and linked to the deaths and illness of thousands of infants, according to the Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) yesterday (2 October).
In a move thought to be designed to restore confidence in the dairy sector, it recommended that retailers display a list in their stores of the clean brands, which included those from leading firms Yili, Mengniu and Bright Dairy.
The previous day, however, the watchdog said it had found melamine in 31 batches of milk powder, mostly aimed at adults. The powder came from 15 dairies that had not been named in earlier tests for melamine, as well as Sanlu Group, the dairy at the centre of the current scandal.
Meanwhile, earlier this week, a spokesman from the government of Shijiazhuang, the city where Sanlu is based, revealed that the compay had asked for help in covering up the problem.
Wang Jianguo’s statement, published in the Communist Party newspaper the People’s Daily on 1 October, confirmed that they had co-operated with Sanlu’s request to “control and coordinate the media” in order to protect the company’s image. The city government did not tell the provincial Hebei government until 9 September.
