Melamilk - the scandal

In 2008, China made an extra headline news (besides the Beijing Olympic Games) it was not expected to make.

It all started with a sudden increase among babies becoming ill and having signs of kidney damage and kidney stones. It was later found out that these babies had something in common - drinking Sanlu milk powder, a product in the Chinese market that was cheap and popular.

Sanlu infant formula on shelves before scandal

The company producing the milk powder, Sanlu Group, eventually admitted the formula contained toxic chemical melamine, added to make a formula with higher protein content. To make matters worse, around 50,000 people fell ill and four infant deaths were reported as a result of the contamination along with the snowballing scandal.

However, the scandal did not just end at Sanlu milk powder. A thorough inspection by the Chinese health officials were carried out over a wide spectrum of baby milk powder makers and other dairy products (e.g. liquid milk, eggs) which turned up traces of melamine in 22 companies. Many of such popular products included Cadbury chocolate and White Rabbit sweets. These products were called off the shelves. Enraged consumers who have lost their children to melamine contamination also took matters into their own hands by holding protests and suing companies for compensation.

Protesters with signs that read 'return my child' and 'request for justice'.

It eventually amounted to the United Nations issuing a report urging China to better educate and train food industry officials and government enforcement agencies. Several countries have also gone as far as to terminate imports of all Chinese dairy products.

To counter worldwide lash back, new dairy safety standards were released by China limiting the amount of melamine in products to 1mg of melamine per kg of infant formula and 2.5mg of melamine per kg of liquid milk, milk powder and food products containing at least 15% milk. When U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) stated that no amount of melamine is safe in baby formula, the Chinese government said that no melamine has been found in products after the release of new quality standards.

References:
>> About.com, 2008. Summary of China's Tainted Milk Scandal. [online] Available at: <http://chineseculture.about.com/od/2008milkscandal/a/Milksummary.htm> [Accessed 25 January 2013]
>> BBC, 2010. Timeline: China Milk Scandal. [online] Available at: <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7720404.stm> [Accessed 25 January 2013]

Images obtained from:
>> http://www.vanblumreich.com/blog/2009/03/31/why-people-steal-music/comment-page-1/
>> http://english.cri.cn/4026/2008/09/13/1481s405175.htm
>> http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/OB-CZ641_cmilk0_D_20090122045711.jpg