Fears over China's melamine-tainted milk products snowballed Thursday with Australia, New Zealand and India banning the products, the EU unveiling plans to follow suit, and UNICEF and WHO deploring attempts by dairy firms to deceive the public. Altogether 53,000 Chinese children have been sickened and four have died after drinking milk containing the industrial chemical melamine, which is mainly used for making plastic. When added to milk, melamine can make it appear richer in protein. The toxic chemical can cause stones in the kidney and its failure. The European Commission said it was preparing an “explicit, total” ban on all products originating from China for infants and young children containing milk, a spokeswoman told journalists. China does not export dairy products such as milk or yoghurt to the European Union, but it does export food items containing milk, such as biscuits and chocolate. “Based on what we've seen in the press I would say, this looks like an attempt to deceive the public by milk producers who seem to be trying to water down their milk,” said Dale Rutstein, a Beijing-based spokesman for UNICEF, the UN's children agency. UNICEF earlier issued a statement with the World Health Organization (WHO), saying it had “observed with great sadness and concern the unfolding story of tainted infant formula produced by Sanlu and other companies.” “Whilst any attempt to deceive the public in the area of food production and marketing is unacceptable, deliberate contamination of foods intended for consumption by vulnerable infants and young children is particularly deplorable,” the statement said. More than a dozen countries have now ordered such bans or taken other steps to curb consumption. So far, the only five cases outside mainland China of children falling ill through tainted milk have been reported in Hong Kong. Saudi Arabia does not import dairy products from China. In Indonesia, food inspectors found about 30 Chinese-made products contaminated with melamine. In New Zealand, British supermarket Tesco pulled White Rabbit Creamy candy (made in China) after learning that it had a higher-than-normal level of melamine, Food Safety Authority and Australian food regulators said. In Vietnam, the Health Ministry inspection teams are on high alert and are looking “into food hygiene and safety standards ... involving in milk and dairy products nationwide.” Indian authorities imposed a three-month ban on imports of Chinese diary products. In Beijing, the Chinese government scrambled to contain the negative fall-out, signalling that it was serious about tackling the problem. It has set up working groups in nearly every province, and embarked on a sweeping drive to set up a series of new food testing centers and replace outdated equipment, officials said.
