China has food for thought

The problem of tainted consumables in the country is proving a tough nut to crack and despite the introduction of new laws two years ago the public remains sceptical.

The Chinese government tightened its check on dairy products after melamine-tainted milk sold in supermarkets sickened babies.

Last week saw another case of tainted milk in China. It was a grim reminder of one of the most serious challenges facing the country - how to combat "quality fade", where profits are maximised by minimising quality.

China may be among the world's biggest manufacturers but it is also the world's factory with some serious issues to deal with when it comes to quality.

Beijing wants to boost the "Made in China" brand, but it is a challenge for a country where companies sell themselves to foreign outsourcers on their competitive pricing.

The government is keen to boost China's manufacturing base, to increase added-value production and lose its reputation for producing poor-quality goods.

Counterfeiting often extends to branded foods and consumers have to read the labels carefully to make sure they are getting what they pay for, although most big-name chains sell recognised brands.

Other recent consumer scandals in China have involved contaminated red wine, bleached mushrooms, fake tofu, recycled cooking oil and toys containing toxic paint.

Billions of dollars worth of counterfeit and substandard goods such as fake snack bars, liquor, medicines and face creams are produced every year in China.

"The Food Safety Law has been in effect for two years now and the National People's Congress has already organised two nationwide investigations, which show that the legislature and the central government is highly concerned about food safety," says Professor Wang Xixin at the law faculty in Peking University.

Three children died after drinking nitrate-tainted milk from two dairies in north-west China. It was only the latest food-safety scandal to hit the country's beleaguered dairy industry.

Thirty-five people, most of them children aged under 14, became sick after drinking the milk tainted with the chemical, which is used for curing meat.

They were treated at two hospitals in Pingliang city, Gansu province. The two farms were sealed off and the managers investigated.

Last week, China's quality inspection agency ordered 426 of the country's 1,176 dairies to stop production as part of efforts to clean up the industry.

While the nitrate incident appears to have been a malicious act, and two people been charged with intentional poisoning, it illustrates how far China has to go in ensuring quality.

There have been regular poisonings and toxin scandals in recent years that have badly damaged consumer confidence and one of the biggest offenders is the dairy industry. Milk products are not a traditional staple in China, for adults anyway, but it is a fast-growing sector.

Shortly after the Beijing Olympics in 2008, at least six children died and almost 300,000 fell ill from infant formula made from milk laced with melamine.

This industrial chemical was added to low-quality or diluted milk to fool inspectors by making it seem high in protein.

The scandal meant dairy imports jumped from 120,000 tonnes in 2008 to 600,000 in 2009, according to state media. And still, almost three years on, many people do not trust domestic products and would rather buy imported dairy products.

With good reason, it seems, as there have been other dairy-related scandals this year, including one report that manufacturers had added a leather protein powder to milk to fool inspectors over the quality of the product. Last year, the health ministry was forced to issue a statement to say it had found no evidence contaminated milk powder for babies caused three infant girls to grow breasts.

Attempts to protest against the state of the industry have been harshly dealt with. Zhao Lianhai, who organised a website for parents of children who became ill from tainted milk, was jailed for two and a half years last November after being convicted of "inciting social disorder".

In an interview with the South China Morning Post newspaper, Mr Zhao claimed he was force-fed through the nose with Chinese-produced milk while he was on hunger strike to protest against his imprisonment.

In another incident, a supplier of the country's largest meat processor last month found pigs it had bought had been fed the illegal toxic additive clenbuterol. This reduces a pig's body fat to produce lean meat, but can lead to dizziness, heart palpitations and profuse sweating in humans.

"The idea that bringing out a food safety law will solve all our problems is not realistic, and also naive," says Prof Wang.

"It's true that the whole framework and the detailed terms of the food safety law shows a great improvement and progress [by] the government compared to the past, but … legislation of food safety is about meeting needs, and is still not enough," he says .

China needs a consumer rights culture, as well as better information about ingredients and additives, and stricter penalties for transgressors, Prof Wang says.

"This is to make those companies understand that even if only one customer asks for compensation among 10,000 customers, the company will face … closure," he says.