BEIJING // Authorities detained six more suspects in the contaminated milk scandal amid efforts to restore public trust in Chinese-made food products, as Hong Kong found high levels of melamine in Cadbury chocolates. Chinese police said the six were detained in Hohhot, in northern China's Inner Mongolia region, for allegedly making and selling melamine, the industrial chemical that has been found in the country's milk supplies, the official Xinhua News Agency reported late yesterday.
According to Xinhua, Tian Min, the vice secretary general of Hohhot's municipal government said the suspects were being interrogated and no further details were available. Milk powder containing melamine has been blamed for killing four babies and sickening more than 54,000 children with kidney stones and other illnesses in China. The scandal has sparked global concern about Chinese food imports and recalls in several countries of Chinese-made products including milk powder, biscuits and sweets.
Officials in Hong Kong said yesterday that they found high levels of the chemical in samples of two chocolate products made by the British firm Cadbury at its Beijing factory. The two samples contained considerably more melamine than the city's legal limit of 2.5 parts per million and were among 11 Chinese-made products that have already been recalled by Cadbury in parts of Asia and the Pacific. Hong Kong's Centre for Food Safety said Cadbury's Dairy Milk Hazelnut Chocolate Bulk Pack contained 56 parts per million of melamine, while Dairy Milk Cookies Chocolate contained 6.9 parts per million.
Calls to Cadbury offices in London and the Asia-Pacific went unanswered yesterday. In Iran, the Health Ministry said it imposed a ban on imports of dairy products from China until further notice, according to state radio. The ministry has assigned health workers to destroy suspect Chinese dairy products on the Iranian market. China has struggled to contain public dismay and growing international concern over the latest scandal, castigating local officials for negligence while promising to raise product safety standards. China's quality watchdog said yesterday that no melamine was found in new tests of milk powder sold domestically.
In Beijing, China's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said tests of 129 batches of baby milk powder and 212 batches of other kinds of milk powder showed they were free from melamine contamination. The milk powder was produced after Sept 14, when the scandal over melamine contamination of milk broke, the watchdog said. Quality supervisors have been stationed in baby milk powder production facilities since then to oversee the process.
Chinese authorities believe suppliers trying to boost output diluted their milk, adding melamine because its nitrogen content can fool tests measuring protein content. The Agriculture Ministry, meanwhile, said it is providing subsidies to Chinese dairy farmers badly hit by declining demand for milk. Many farmers have been tossing out raw milk as they are squeezed by feed costs they can't recoup due to waning demand.
The ministry's statement did not give details of the subsidy plan. *AP