31 Chinese milk brands Tested Positive

Thirty-one more Chinese brands tested positive for melamine contamination. 

Also,

• Singapore Airlines removes all Chinese made food from menu
• Philippines organizes a panel to oversee millk importation, distribution and sale from China
• Milk scandal may have been covered up because of the Beijing Olympics
• Canada recalls Lotte brand Koala's March filled cookies after testing psotive for melamine contamination:
  

All codes of the following Lotte brand filled cookies are affected by the new CFIA advisory:

Koala's March 270 g (10 x 27 g) 0 81900 08010 1

Chestnut Cookies

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Koala's March 270 g (10 x 27 g) 0 81900 08902 9

Strawberry Creme

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Koala's March 270 g (10 x 27 g) 0 81900 08911 1

White Chocolate

Creme

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Koala's March 270 g (10 x 27 g) 0 81900 08001 9

Chocolate Creme

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Koala's March 50 g 0 81900 00901 0

Chocolate Creme

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Koala's March 50 g 0 81900 00907 2

Strawberry Creme

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Koala's March 50 g 0 81900 00911 9

White Chocolate Creme

Nestle Recalls Lipton Milk Tea in HK

Nestle recalled 4 batches of Lipton Milk Tea in Hong Kong and Macau  after they were found to contain melamine. 

In other developments:

• HJ Heinz will stop using milk sourced from China in its baby food products sold in the mainland. Heinz recalled 270 cases of baby food products in HK as a precaution. 
• Singapore found traces of melamine in more China-made products: Dutch Lady-brand banana and honeydew flavored milk, Silang-brand potato crackers and two kinds of puffed rice balls
  
• Thailand found melamine in 20 tons of milk imported from China
• Mali bans Chinese milk products

Update: China Milk Scandal

• Cadbury recalls 11 brands of sweets made in its China factory, including Cadbury Eclairs, dark and milk chocolate, hazelnut and praline chocolate, dark Chocettes, and products made specially for the Chinese New Year (in February). and Dairy Milk Chocolate
• Philippines now requires milk companies to disclose source of milk and ingredients used in milk products. Among the products tested by BFAD are Fonterra fruit flavored milk drinks – Anchor Wam! Fruit Milk Drink Mango Magic, Anchor Wam! Fruit Milk Drink Orange Chill, Anchor Wam! Fruit Milk Drink Strawberry Spin
• Companies in the Philippines, including Nestle and Mars are scrambling to assure their customers about the safety of their products, as consumers cut back on milk product consumption
• Indonesia found traces of melamine in chocolates and biscuits made in China by Kraft Foods and Mars. Products including Oreo, M&Ms and Snickers have been recalled in that country. 
• Laos bans China-made milk and milk products 
• The European Union banned China-made milk products for children
• There is a report that says 1 in 20 children in Shanghai may have been sicked by the tainted milk
• More than a dozen Chinese kids in orphanages were also sickened by the tainted milk
• Lawyers for the tainted milk victims are being told to quit their legals efforts to seek redress from the tragedy
  
  

more: 

BBC

Sky News

Lion Cub, Orangutans Latest Victims of Tainted Milk

Even animals weren't spared by the melamine-tainted milk from China. 

A lion cub and baby orangutans from the Zhejiang province reportedly got kidney problems after zoo keepers fed them with Sanlu milk for more than a year. 

more

Finally

The Philippine Bureau of Food and Drugs finally banned Chinese dairy products. The agency is warning consumers not to buy unlabeled milk that are sold in bulk in Manila's flea markets. 

Melamine found in White Rabbit Candy

Singapore said that it found traces of melamine in White Rabbit Candy. 

I like this stuff, ever since I was a kid. This candy is still available in the Philippines too, especially in Zamboanga - where it can be bought in the barter trade shops.  This candy was banned by BFAD last September for containing formaldehyde. 

more:

Herald Sun

53,000 Children Now Ill in China

The number of children who got sick because of tainted milk is now almost 53,000. All but 12,892 have "basically recovered." 

 

Why is BFAD Not Banning Chinese Dairy Yet?

Hey, BFAD (and DTI and DOH), why aren't you banning Chinese-made dairy and milk products yet? Singapore, Bangladesh, Burma, Brunei and several African countries - Burundi, Gabon and Tanzania did already.

More on the scandal: a Hong Kong girl got sick because of the tainted milk, and there are reports that a China-made Nestle brand milk, Neslac Gold +1 contains traces of melamine. Also, Starbucks in China  removed milk from the menu. 

Malaysia Bans China Dairy Products, and more updates

• Malaysia bans Chinese dairy products, after Singapore and Burma did. I hope the Philippine government will do the same too, quickly. 
  

• Four babies now died because of the tainted infant formula, which was found to contain
  

• Melamine is not water soluble, so to be able to be mixable to milk, it has to be combined with formaldehyde 

• Japan is recalling buns, suspected of being made with China-sourced milk

No Chinese Milk in RP Yet

The Philippine Department of Health said that no Chinese-produced milk has reached the country yet.

The agency is also advising the public not to buy cheap but unlabeled dairy products. 

more here and here

List of Chinese Dairy Companies with Tainted Products

1 Shijiazhuang Sanlu Group Co
2 Shanghai Panda Dairy Co Ltd
3 Synutra International Inc
4 Shanxi Gucheng Dairy Co Ltd
5 Jiangxi Bright & Hero Dairy Co
6 Baoji Huimin Milk Co Ltd
7 Mengniu Dairy
8 Duojiaduo Dairy Industry (Tianjin) Co Ltd
9 Guangdong Yashili Group Co Ltd
10 Hunan Peiyi Dairy Co
11 Heilongjiang Qining Dairy Co
12 Shanxi Yashili Dairy Co Ltd
13 Shenzhen Jinbishi Milk Co Ltd
14 Guangzhou Shien Dairy Co
15 Guangzhou Jinding Dairy Co
16 Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group Co
17 Ausmeadow Nutriment Co Ltd
18 Qingdao Suncare Nutritional Technology Co Ltd
19 Xi'an Baiyue Dairy Co Ltd
20 Yantai Leilei Dairy Products Co Ltd
21 Shanghai Bao'anli Dairy Co Ltd
22 Fuding Chenguan Dairy Co Ltd

source

Fake Flash Chips Rampant in China

TGDaily has a story about the spread of fake flash memory chips in China. The bootleg NAND chips, used for storage devices such as USB drives, are usually sold as Samsung-branded ones. Most of the fake chips does not even have a die inside.

No More Chinese-made Food for me

I don't think I will ever consume China-made foodstuff ever again. With all these news about melamine and what-not being used as food "extenders," it will be like playing a Russian roulette if I do. 

22 Companies Now involved in Tainted Milk, Melamine in Yoghurt

Twenty-two companies and 69 brands - 22% of the brands tested - are now suspected of selling melamine-tainted milk in China. 

Melamine, which is high in nitrogen, was used to fool the test that measures protein content of the milk. There are now 6,244 babies sickened by melamine-laced milk, with 3 deaths and 158 with acute kidney failure. 

Fonterra of  New Zealand, which owns part of Sanlu, the company at the center of the scandal, also recalleda batch of Anmum Materna, which is produced under license by Sanlu and sold in China as supplement for pregnant women. (I think there's an Anmum brand sold in the Philippines, I hope there's no Chinese-made component in those. BFAD, are you checking this?)

The chemical was also found in Yili brand of yoghurt, in Hong Kong. 

Sources: Bloomberg, Stuff.co.nz, WSJ

Fonterra

Update on Infant Formula Scandal

• 1,253 babies now affected
• 340 infants hospitalized
• another baby died because of the melamine-laced milk
• more than 10,000 tons of milk recalled 

Milk Scare Worsens

The infant formula incident in China is now approaching catastrope level - there are now 432 babies who got kidney stones from the melamine-tainted milk. 

BBC

More on Infant Formula Scandal

• The maker of the tainted infant formula, Sanlu Group, is recalling 700 tons more of baby formula, after removing 8,000 from stores
• Melamine is confirmed as the culprit
• FDA is advising consumers to avoid Chinese-made formula
• Contamination was known since August 6
• 59 babies were affected, 1 died

Useful links:

Sanlu Group, http://www.sanlu.com

U.S. Food and Drug Administration, http://www.fda.gov

Infant Milk Scare in China

Substandard infant formula - marked Sanlu brand - is suspected to have caused babies to develop kidney stones in Gansu, China.  So far 14 infants were affected but the incident is already causing a stir.

This is not the first time to happen though. In 2004, substandard infant formula resulted to 13 infant fatalities due to maltuntrition, and 170 others hospitalized. 

more

UPDATE: 

• One infant died because of the tarnished milk (Rednet)
• The infant formula contains melamine (USA Today). Melamine was the culprit that downed hundreds of cats and dogs in a pet food scandal in China last year. 

Funny Stuff

Found this gem by Andy Borowitz: 

China's impressive haul of gold medals at the Beijing Olympics was tarnished somewhat today when it was revealed that "abnormally high levels of lead" were found in the first-place medallions.

The medals, which were supposed to be made entirely of gold, were instead found to be composed of 99 percent lead alloy and coated with a gold-colored lead-based paint.

MP4 Players' Radiation Risk

The Inquirer has a story about the radiation risks posed by Chinese-made MP4 players. 

The report says that the Shanghai Administration for Industry and Commerce found these mp4 players emit dangerous levels of electromagnetic radiation. 

The agency also found that the advertised storage capacity of such players are misstated by 6 percent.

In another report, the same agency found that 75% of such players are substandard.