Dairy from 22 Chinese firms banned

The ban, effective immediately, came one day after the Chinese authorities announced the baby milk powder made by the 22 companies to contain melamine, a substance used to make plastics and fertilizers. Among the 22 makers is China's biggest milk company, Mengniu Dairy.

The tainted milk has been linked to three baby deaths and thousands of cases of infant sickness in China.

Just late last week, the government announced a ban on imports of Sanlu-branded products from China after the firm's milk powder was found to contain melamine that caused more than 6,000 children to fall ill with kidney-related diseases.

After the recall of the Sanlu branded milk powder, Chinese authorities tested another 491 batches of the dairy ingredient being sold in its market and found 69 batches produced by 22 companies to contain varying amounts of melamine.

The Bureau of Standards, Metrology and Inspection (BSMI) under the Ministry of Economic Affairs launched an intensive probe Monday into the possibility that more tainted milk powder from China has made its way into Taiwan.

Meanwhile, the quasi-official intermediary body Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) also asked the Beijing-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) Wednesday to help determine whether tainted products from the 22 Chinese companies had been exported to Taiwan.

Meanwhile, DOH officials said yesterday that the sale of dairy products made in China will resume in Taiwan only after the importers provide adequate certification to prove the safety of the products.

DOH Deputy Minister Sung Yen-jen said that, except for a shipment of 25 metric tons of milk powder manufactured by the Shijiazhuang based Sanlu Group, Taiwan has never imported any products from the 22 Chinese companies involved in the latest melamine contamination scandal.

However, a total of 17 importers are currently supplying dairy products manufactured in China, Sung added.

These importers are required to offer credible food safety certificates for confirmation by the DOH before the sale of their imports can be resumed, Sung said, adding that the process will take only one to two days, including the time spent to conduct laboratory tests.

Sung said that of the 17 importers, Nestle Taiwan has already cleared the tests conducted by the Food Industry Research and Development Institute (FIRD) and will be allowed to start selling its products again in a couple of days. He urged the other 16 importers to have their products tested as soon as possible.

Hsiao Tung-ming, head of the DOH's Bureau of Food Safety, said that the DOH is also accepting the results of tests conducted by the Food Safety Institute International -- Asia Pacific Office, located in Taipei.

Hsiao said importers planning to bring in any dairy products from China in the future will be required to provide similar safety certificates for each shipment.

Most of the 1,000 bags of Sanlu-brand milk powder imported by Taiwan have been successfully recalled and destroyed over the past few days.

In related news, Nestle Taiwan Ltd. -- a subsidiary of the Nestle Corp. of Switzerland -- announced that its milk products imported from China have been certified as free of melamine, a chemical harmful to human health.

Liang Jia-rui, a director of Nestle Taiwan's public affairs office, said Nestle Taiwan had voluntarily submitted its milk products imported from China, including its infant formula and the Klim brand milk powder for adults, to the Food Industry Research and Development Institute in Hsinchu for testing, and that the results that came out a day earlier showed that the products were safe and free of melamine.



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