More Melamine Problems Pop Up

The melamine-tainted food scandal has taken a couple of bizarre twists.
First,  Britain’s Food Standards Agency said late last week that a Chinese-made novelty food product sold in U.K. sex shops has been taken off the shelves after being found to be contaminated with melamine. A FSA spokesperson said: “This is a first. We’ve never had [...]

A Primer On Food Safety

The Council on Foreign Relations has a backgrounder on China’s food safety regime that provides a useful summary of the current situation, China’s Troubled Food and Drug Trade. Four sentences stand out.
Of the nearly one million food processing factories, 70 percent are food workshops with fewer than ten employees.
This degree of fragmentation of the industry [...]

Medicinal Ginseng Recall Expanded

Wandashan Pharmaceutical recalled all its products taken by injection on Friday, following three deaths of users of its medicinal gingseng. The move was announced by the State Food and Drug Administration today. Sales and use of Wandashan’s ginseng products had already been stopped.
We noted earlier that the deaths, which occurred at the beginning of October, [...]

Toymaking Is No Child’s Play As Business Failures Soar

Made in China toys seem ubiquitous in the West. China is the world’s largest toy exporter. But these are tough times for the industry.
Half of China’s toy exporters have gone out of business so far this year. A rising yuan,  more expensive raw materials, slowing market growth and tougher quality standards have taken a fearful [...]

The Economics Of Tainting Milk With Melamine

Chemistry World puts some numbers on the cost of adding melamine to milk (here via the Royal Society of Chemistry site). It is a profitable business:
Industrial melamine costs about 12,000 yuan (US$1765) per tonne, much higher than the price of milk – 1200-1800 yuan per tonne. But the practice of adding melamine to milk is [...]

Ripples From Tainted Dairy Products Scandal Spread Wider

It is less than 48 hours since a senior official said the problems with tainted dairy products were under control. Since then the E.U., India, France and South Korea have joined the ranks of those imposing restrictions on Chinese milk and dairy related imports, the maker of White Rabbit candy has issued a product recall, [...]

Tainted Baby Formula Scandal Widens

The scope of the melamine-contaminated baby milk scandal continues to widen. Batches of tainted formula have now been found produced by 22 companies across China, according to TV reports, here via AFP.
This will shift the focus from Sanlu Group, which has been criticised for being slow to recall the affected products, to the milk brokers [...]

Tainted Baby Milk Powder Recalled

Product safety standards are back in the news with the recall of tainted baby milk. Melamine has been added to milk powder that has been linked to kidney stones in more than 400 infants. Nineteen people have been detained in connection with the incidents and a wide ranging investigation is underway. The dairy involved, Sanlu [...]

Lawyers Sink Their Teeth Into Tainted Pet Food

The lawyers have at last got involved in last year’s product safety scare.
Two Chinese businesses and a U.S. company have been indicted by the U.S. attorney’s office in Kansas City in connection with tainted pet food incidents that killed dozens of animals last year, triggering the scare. These are criminal not civil indictments — serious [...]