Chinese officials said yesterday that private milk-collecting stations were likely at fault for a rapidly unfolding scandal over tainted infant formula that has left two babies dead and as many as 1,253 ill.
The New Zealand partner to the Chinese company Sanlu at the center of the storm went further, saying the contamination amounted to sabotage.
All 19 people detained so far in a nationwide probe into how the chemical melamine came to contaminate the formula are from the stations, which pick up milk from dairy farmers, the China Daily said.
“It’s unlikely that dairy farmers mixed the industrial chemical melamine in fresh milk,” it quoted Li Changjiang (李長江), who heads the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, as saying.
This was in contrast to initial statements from Sanlu Group, which fingered dairy farmers for the contamination, the paper said.
Xinhua news agency said two brothers in Hebei Province — who are among the detained — were arrested for allegedly selling 3 tonnes of contaminated milk per day from their station.
They allegedly added melamine after Sanlu repeatedly rejected their milk for failing to meet standards, it said, citing Hebei police.
Two babies, both in Gansu Province, had now been confirmed dead after drinking the contaminated milk powder.
New Zealand dairy giant Fonterra has a 43 percent stake in Sanlu.
Fonterra chief executive Andrew Ferrier said the contamination was the result of third-party sabotage of raw milk supplied to Sanlu.
“In this case we frankly have sabotage of a product,” he said. “Our hearts go out to the parents and the infants who were affected.”
Speaking to New Zealand reporters from Singapore, he said Fonterra had known of the contamination early last month and wanted an immediate recall, but Sanlu had to abide by Chinese rules.
“We together with Sanlu have done everything that we possibly could to get the product off the shelf,” Ferrier said.
The South China Morning Post and the Sydney Morning Herald said the Central Propaganda Department in Beijing had issued instructions to local media on what were not permissible topics for publication during the Olympics.
On Aug. 14, the Herald published a translation of one of the instructions, which read: “All food safety issues, such as cancer-causing mineral water, is off-limits.”
Beijing only acted after interventions by the New Zealand government last week, as local authorities failed to act.
Also See: Cheng slams Ma over milk powderand Also See: Wang vows probe on liability
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