China milk scandal

The tainted milk scandal continues in China nearly two years after it was thought to have been over. Government officials told Chinese citizens in 2008 that all melamine-tainted milk had been destroyed. However, recent reports of melamine-containing milk are surfacing once again in the provinces of Shaanxi, Shandong, Liaoning, Guizhou, Jilin and Hebei, as well as in China’s most populous city, Shanghai.

Dairy farms are suspected of diluting their milk with water, then adding the nitrogen-rich industrial chemical melamine to make the milk appear protein-rich in quality tests that measure nitrogen.

China milk scandal

Officials have recently recalled more than 170 tons of milk powder tainted by melamine and closed two dairy companies in China’s northwest, the China Daily newspaper reported Monday. The report said that government officials have seized 72 tons of the powder but are still looking for the rest, which they fear is sitting on store shelves throughout the country.

Despite government activity since 2008, the tainted milk scandal continues in China on a wide scale as companies appear to be resuming the sale of tainted milk from their reserves that were not destroyed in 2008 as presumed, but simply saved for later.