Phone alerts buzz Asia-wide as dairy scandal grows
23 Sep 2008 11:19:24 GMT Source: Reuters
By Brenda Goh SINGAPORE, Sept 23 (Reuters) - Mobile telephones buzzed across Singapore and Bangkok on Tuesday as an unofficial warning network sprang up between consumers worried by the latest Chinese food quality scandal. Concerned consumers warned family and friends to steer clear of a range of products possibly affected by tainted Chinese dairy products that have killed four infants in China and affected tens of thousands. From milk powder in Bangladesh to sweet buns in Japan and candies in Australia, China's corporate nose has been well and truly bloodied by the nation's latest quality scandal. Singapore supermarkets began pulling popular brands of chocolate bars from their shelves on Tuesday as panic grew, prompting store owners to issue assurances they were doing all they could to protect consumers. "We are taking further precautions by checking and removing products that may not be manufactured in China but may have milk or dairy from China as part of their ingredients," said a spokesperson from the Dairy Farm Group Singapore, which owns chain stores such as Cold Storage, Giant and 7-Eleven in the city-state. Singapore's Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority has already suspended the import and sale of all dairy products from China. Toxic milk powder laced with the industrial chemical melamine, used in pesticides and plastic-making, has made more than 54,000 children sick in China and led to nearly 13,000 infants being admitted to hospital with kidney illnesses. Of those, 104 were in a serious condition with kidney stones and agonising complications. "It's only right that they pull these products, although many of them are from our favourite brands. I was surprised to find out that a number of them were made in China," said Joyce Chua, a 20-year-old university student in Singapore. "I'll definitely be more cautious in future and will probably stop buying dairy products for a while." "PANIC OUT THERE" In Bangkok, the text message campaign forced the local unit of one giant U.S. confectioner to assure consumers its dairy products were not from China. "There has been panic out here. My friends call. My colleagues call, because people received SMSes that actually came from Singapore," said Ubolwan Sattarujawong, a spokeswoman for Mars (Thailand) Inc. Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan have also banned mainland Chinese dairy products. Brunei, Bangladesh, the Philippines and the poor African nations Gabon and Burundi are testing Chinese dairy products. Canada has also recalled boxes of a Chinese dessert mix after it failed tests in Hong Kong. China's Foreign Ministry said Beijing had alerted the World Health Organisation and other nations in a bid to allay concerns about the dairy scandal. "We totally understand why countries and regions care so much about this problem," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told a news conference. "We are willing to increase cooperation with the international community on this issue, to together protect consumers' rights, and guarantee people's safety," she said. Indonesia's temporary ban includes food and drinks that contain milk, such as yoghurt and ice-cream. "The situation in China is severe. We don't want to get affected," said Indonesian Health Ministry spokeswoman Lily Sulistyowati. Australia's food regulator said it was testing imported Chinese sweets for possible traces of melamine, but no decision has been made to ban sales. Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) said Australia does not import any infant formula products from China, and has not received any dairy imports from China since April 2007. Checks were under way to ensure that no affected items, such as Chinese dairy candies, were being sold in small stores specialising in Asian goods. "If something is found to be unsafe on Australian shelves, then of course it's not legal for them to be sold and they can be recalled," FSANZ spokeswoman Lydia Buchtmann told local radio. Taiwan is waiting on Chinese approval to send a team of health experts to the mainland, the Taiwanese government said. (Additional reporting by Ploy Chitsomboon in BANGKOK, Doug Young in TAIPEI, Fitri Wulandari and Telly Nathalia in JAKARTA, Ben Blanchard in BEIJING, James Grubel in CANBERRA; Writing by Paul Tait; Editing by Alex Richardson)
A worker feeds milk cows at a dairy farm in Wuhan, Hubei province September 23, 2008. The Sanlu milk powder incident will re- pattern China's dairy industry, including competition subjects, product ...
