Food cover-up fatal for China again

Then, last year, an international scare broke out after it was discovered that pet food imported from China was causing the death of hundreds of dogs and cats in North America because the food had been laced with melamine to give them an appearance of higher nutritional value. Melamine is a chemical used to make plastic; it causes kidney stones in animals.

About the same time, lead-tainted Chinese toys were recalled amid widespread publicity and a call went out that Chinese products were not safe and that “Made in China” is a warning label.

China had to take immediate steps to reassure its own population, and the world, that stringent regulations would be put in place. The former head of China’s State Food and Drug Administration, Zheng Xiaoyu, was charged with corruption and promptly executed.

Now it has happened again. There is another food scare, with infant milk powder contaminated with melamine having been sold in large parts of China. At least two infants have died and well over 1,000 others spread across eight provinces are suffering from kidney stones.

Though there have been exports, including to Taiwan, the problem appears to be primarily domestic. The State Council has decreed a “national food safety emergency.”

The manufacturer of the product, Sanlu Group Co., a state-owned company with a minority New Zealand stake, announced September 11 that it had sealed off 2,176 tons of contaminated milk powder and initiated a recall of its products.

The question is why it took so long for Sanlu to sound the alarm. Its New Zealand partner, Fonterra, said it knew about the problem six weeks earlier and had immediately pressed for a recall, but this did not happen for weeks.

Prime Minister Helen Clark says that Fonterra tried “for weeks to get official recall and the local authorities in China would not do it.”

Finally, last Monday, New Zealand “blew the whistle in Beijing” and “a very heavy hand then descended on the local authorities.”

Chinese investigators, besides assessing the responsibility of Sanlu and its suppliers, should also determine the culpability of local authorities in China.

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