Tainted-Milk Scandal Sparks Crackdown on Food Producers

(Financial Post – Duncan Mavin)

The tainted-milk scandal that caused the deaths of at least six Chinese babies and sickened hundreds of thousands of other children since the summer has pushed authorities in Beijing to clamp down on the country’s unethical food producers.

During a four-month campaign that kicks off immediately, Chinese law enforcement officers will raid meat, dairy and brewery producers to put a stop to illegal food production, according to China Daily News. Firms using “excessive” food additives “will be hauled up,” said an official quoted in the report.

The deaths of young children probably hastened the decision to act, said Keith Mussar, a food safety expert with the Canadian Association of Importers and Exporters Inc., also known as I.E.Canada.

“We address children’s issues with a fervour that sometimes we don’t with others,” said Mr. Mussar, who is in Hong Kong this week to give a speech on trends in food safety practices in North America. [Children] are more susceptible, so as a result they need more protection,” he said.

Chinese food products and consumer goods have been pulled from shelves around the world following a raft of safety concerns in the past couple of years. But no other product has cost lives or led to sickness among Chinese children on the scale of the milk scandal.

Authorities in Beijing “clearly” intend to improve food safety standards, Mr. Mussar added.

Nevertheless, IE Canada is pushing for Canadian importers that buy finished goods rather than ingredients to build more of their safety practices in at the overseas manufacturing source, instead of at the port of entry. Read more here.