Fake Formula Fiasco
September 12, 2008
Last year it caused the untimely deaths of several dogs and cats in the U.S., and this year it's already killed at least one Chinese infant.
The culprit? Melamine, a chemical that has high levels of nitrogen, but are completely insoluble by animals.
Companies who are looking to cut corners will often use melamine to make their products appear and taste extra nutritious, but in fact, consumption of melamine can be extremely harmful.
Many parents who fed their children milk from China's Sanlu Group learned this lesson the hard way. After finding 59 infants in Gansu Province with kidney stones, versus zero the previous two years, officials realized that many of the babies drank the same Sanlu formula, which turned out to have high levels of melamine.
Sanlu Group will remove 700 tons from the shelves, but the company hasn't made itself available for comment beyond a press release yesterday, where they denied that they were culpable for these physical problems.
The Chinese Ministry of Health thought otherwise, and has already apprehended 78 suspects who might have tampered with the formula. They have promised "serious punishment" to those involved, and I wouldn't take that statement lightly.
This isn't the first time China has been in the middle of this type of controversy. In 2004 some fake milk powder caused deaths of at least twelve children in Anhui Province. The major difference between the two cases is that the 2004 incident was by a counterfeit company. Sanlu, on the other hand, is China's seventh largest formula producer, and earlier this year passed China's safety standards.
Since this investigation is still on-going, it might turn out that Sanlu has been unfairly targeted. Of course, given the high publicity of this situation, I definitely expect the facts to unravel very quickly, and for a swift administration of justice.
I also predict a rise in breast-feeding.
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