Police in China have made fresh arrests in the north of the country amid the latest allegations of the contamination of milk with melamine. Three men in Shaanxi Province have been arrested over claims they used ten tonnes of milk powder laced with melamine, which were then sent to stores in the south of China. According to the Shanghai Daily, two men from Shaanxi Lekang Dairy Co. were arrested. A third man, who had reportedly sold Lekang the contaminated milk powder, was also arrested. Last week,... ...Read more »

Fresh questions have been raised about China’s food safety policy after it emerged that officials waited almost a year before going public with its latest probe into alleged melamine contamination in milk. According to local reports, Chinese officials waited 11 months before revealing that they were investigating another alleged case of melamine being used in milk production. Food safety authorities in Shanghai last week announced they had shut down the Shanghai Panda company after discovering... ...Read more »

Two men were executed in China yesterday for their involvement in China’s contaminated milk scandal that killed six babies and made 300,000 ill, according to reports. The men had been sentenced to death earlier this year by a court in the northern city of Shijiazhuang for producing and selling toxic ingredients that ended up in the infant milk powder. Milk producer Geng Jinping was convicted of producing and selling toxic food to dairy companies. Tian Wenhua, former chairman of the Sanlu Group,... ...Read more »

China’s fledgling and buoyant dairy industry was brought to its knees after last year’s melamine scandal but, slowly, there are signs growth is returning to the sector. Beijing has ordered China’s dairies to tighten up their supply chains and the country’s top processors are highlighting those moves to convince consumers their milk is safe. Mark Godfrey reports from Beijing. The marketing gloves are back off in China’s dairy industry. Almost a year on from the melamine... ...Read more »

The Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC), which develops international food standards, has adopted more than 30 new international standards, codes of practice and guidelines to improve worldwide food safety following a week-long meeting.A brief overview of some of the new standards adopted by the Commission* can be seen below: Reduction of Acrylamide in foods The Commission approved measures for reducing the formation of acrylamide in foods. The Code of Practice will provide national and local authorities,... ...Read more »

An auction of the company at the centre of last year’s melamine dairy contamination has found a buyer, with Sanyuan buying Sanlu for 617 million yuan (A$145 million), China news agency Xinhua reported. Beijing-based dairy producer Sanyuan Group won the bidding for all valid assets and stake ownership of Sanlu Dairy Group, which was declared bankrupt last month by a Chinese court. The auction came after Tian Wenhua, the former Sanlu Chair, was jailed for life and fined $3.6 million for her role... ...Read more »

Chinese health chiefs yesterday promised harsh punishments for those guilty of the production, sale and use of illegal additives in food as they continue a nationwide campaign to improve the food system. “Some lawless people are still using high technologies to develop food counterfeiting techniques to challenge the supervision capability of law enforcement departments,” Vice-Health Minister Chen Xiaohong said during a video conference briefing on the initial stage of the four-month campaign,... ...Read more »

The world’s largest dairy exporter has been presented with another melamine scare, though unlike the tragic Chinese scandal last year the issue appears to be under control. Fonterra announced on Saturday that one of its suppliers, a German based company called Budenheim, had advised Fonterra that an iron supplement Budenheim supplies to food companies around the world had tested positive for melamine. Fonterra uses very small quantities of the iron supplement in 12 fortified whole milk powder... ...Read more »

Sanlu, the company at the centre of the recent melamine scandal in China, has been declared bankrupt by a Chinese court. The Intermediate People’s Court of Shijiazhuang issued the bankruptcy order at the first meeting of Sanlu’s creditors yesterday. Sanlu Group debts had climbed above the value of their assets in the wake of the scandal, with the group forced to borrow 902 million yuan (A$201 million) to pay the medical fees of children made ill by its melamine tainted baby formula and... ...Read more »

The world’s biggest dairy exporter Fonterra, which owned 43 per cent of Sanlu Group – the company at the centre of China’s melamine scandal, has advised of their shock at the alarming findings of a Chinese court, which last week sent the former Chairwoman of Sanlu to prison for the remainder of her life while sentencing two others to death. Another who was involved in the deliberate contamination milk powder, which lead to the deaths of at least six infants and almost 300,000 illnesses,... ...Read more »