SHANGHAI, China - A generation ago, when today's new Chinese parents were infants, milk powder was so scarce that it was one of the top items requested from travelers visiting from overseas.

Dairy products now line supermarket shelves, and analysts say the boom has overwhelmed regulators. The discovery this week of an industrial chemical in baby formula is just one symptom, they say, of unbridled growth in the dairy industry, where poor hygiene reigns and safety standards often go unenforced.

Authorities have ordered testing of all dairy products and vowed to upgrade quality standards after four Chinese babies died and more than 6,200 fell ill from drinking formula containing melamine.

The melamine scandal "reflects chaos in the dairy products market and loopholes in supervision and administration," said a government Web site's summary of a Cabinet meeting held late Wednesday that was chaired by Premier Wen Jiabao.

"The dairy industry has just been developing too quickly. Dairy producers know how to make innovative new milk products, but they've ignored the issue of quality of the raw materials," said Lao Bing, manager of the Shanghai-based consultancy Mingtai Dairy Industry Sales Fund.

As was true in several other recent cases, the problems with baby formula crept in at the lowest rung of the production chain, often the weakest link for Chinese industries.

"Everything on the raw materials side just depends on the milk producers themselves. They set their own standards," Lao said.

The infant formula scandal is the second in recent years. In 2004, at least 12 Chinese babies died and more than 200 suffered malnutrition after being fed phony formula containing little or no nutrition.

The latest incident has also raised doubts about the effectiveness of improved food and drug safety standards put in place after earlier scares over bogus or contaminated products.

Investigators say that raw milk suppliers, in hopes of clearing more profit, watered down their milk to increase volume and then added the industrial chemical melamine, which is high in nitrogen and artificially appears to boost protein content.

Melamine is an industrial chemical used in plastics, as a binding agent, flame retardant and sometimes in fertilizer. Some of the infants that consumed formula tainted with the chemical developed kidney stones or kidney failure.

Most Chinese milk powder factories lack the equipment needed to detect such chemicals, said Chen Lianfang, a senior dairy analyst at Beijing Orient Agribusiness Consultant Co.

Few factories and farms adhere to health safety regulations, and even if they did, China's national quality standards on hygiene were set in the 1980s and are woefully out of date, Chen said.

"Milk that meets those (outdated) standards would be considered substandard in any other country and just be thrown out," he said.

Milk production has grown fourfold over the past decade to more than 33 million tons a year, as farmers rushed into dairy operations. The country has about 15 million milk cows, according to the government-affiliated China Dairy Industry Association, and is the world's third-biggest producer of milk.

Supermarkets offer an array of milk products promising to maximize health through better nutrition. Families, both affluent city dwellers and poor farmers, have meanwhile shifted en masse to bottle feeding, often viewing breast-feeding as inconvenient and old-fashioned.

But about 80 percent of all milk production is by small farmers who lack modern equipment or knowledge of dairy technology. Forage is scarce, feed is of poor quality and sanitary conditions on farms questionable, industry reports say.

"In China, the raw milk suppliers are mainly farmers lacking scientific skills. Some of them raise cattle just like they would pigs," said Beijing Orient's Chen. "You can imagine that if the initial source is tainted, how about the final products?"

Industry experts say the country needs more advanced testing equipment, stricter and more detailed regulations and better technology — including basic hygiene.

So far, officials have attributed all the illnesses linked to melamine-tainted formula to products from Sanlu Group Co., a manufacturer based in northern China's Hebei province.

But health ministry officials said a national investigation found melamine in products from about one in five dairy companies, including China's two biggest milk producers: Mengniu Dairy, China's biggest milk company, and rival Yili Industrial Co. Lao of Mingtai Dairy Industry Sales Fund.

"This is a grave lesson for the entire Chinese dairy indus

In monday news in HK..one of Nestle Products Neslac Gold 1+ found melamine. And my baby also consuming one of Nestle Milk...she's undergone checkup right now.Urine sample of my 2 yrs. old 4 mos. baby results is fine. Subong gapila for UltraSound, a lot of our Filipino friends here in China have their families here. Please Help us Pray that nobody will have a kidney stone problems due to Milk Melamine Contamination...

Below mail is from Nestle Beijing...kindly read and share to anybody who's consuming Nestle Milk...

I think BFAD in our country are in actions to examine dairy products and milk products from Yili Dairy in China has been stopped in Philippines.

We need to make sure our baby's health...ginbalik ko sa Gain Plus Advance ang baby ko..even double ang price sang sa Pinas nga Gain...and it's Abbott brand, it is safe!!
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Dear all,
to put things into perspective:
the European safety risk for melamine is 30 mg/kg (milligram per kilogram)
the Chinese government will definitely issue a much stricter standard ( we hope they come up with it soon since it is creating a lot of panic everywhere)
currently there are two types of dairy products found with melamine:
1. the ones that were adulterated (meaning ADDED) Sanlu has 2200mg/kg or ppm (parts per million)
2. Nestle fresh milk in Hong Kong for catering services (very limited batch only in Hong Kong) was found to have 1.4 mg/kg

it is also worthwhile to mention again that the European standard for safety risk of melamine in food products is 30 mg/kg
And that melamine is found in the food chain (maybe in feeds of cows where it is allowed by some countries), in the packaging of food, etc

What is important is the level. It is like bacteria where you can find it in ALL food, but what the laboratories check is the safety level.

to summarize, I assure you of the safety of all Nestle milk powder and liquid in China. You and your family can take it without any worries.

If you have any question please do not hesitate to give me a call

Arlene
Arlene Tan-Bantoto
Medical Marketing Manager - Mainland China
email: arlene.bantoto@cn.nestle.com
direct line: +86 10 - 8434 7734
Nestle (China) Ltd.
Building NO. 3, Universal Plaza
10 Jiu Xian Qiao Lu,
Chao Yang District, Beijing, PRC
100016