China clears Danone, milk products of melamine

[Coventina]

Source: Associated Press

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese quality investigators have found that milk products from a unit of France's Groupe Danone SA are melamine-free, and also said an unapproved additive used by one of China's largest dairies is safe but was used illegally.

The separate investigations into the products of Danone's Dumex Baby Food Co. Ltd. and Mengniu Dairy Group Co. underscore the government's chronic problems with policing product quality. Melamine-contaminated milk was linked to the deaths of at least six Chinese babies and illnesses of nearly 300,000 others last year.

In a statement released over the weekend, the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Quality and Technical Supervision said it had tested 932 batches dairy products produced by the Dumex subsidiary since mid-September "and all are melamine-free."

It also said no melamine, an industrial chemical used in the manufacture of plastics and fertilizer, was found in more than 1,700 batches produced before mid-September, when the dairy scandal broke.



Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gODpu68ocebX3Rc8gwyfAU3HiF-AD96CFV5O0

[Owl]

1. If there's anything from China in it, I ain't eatin' it.

[Coventina]

2. You better not eat any kind of processed food, then.

And carefully inspect the labels of fresh and frozen stuff.

Food companies are not required to list the country of origin for individual ingredients. If you eat anything with added vitamin c, for instance, that vitamin c came from China.

[wickerwoman]

5. You're going to go pretty hungry with that standard.

Forty times as many people die from e coli poisoning from US beef every single year as died in China from melamine poisoning.

The salmonella peanut butter is directly analogous to the melamine outbreak in China in terms of who was responsible, the relationship between government and industry and the number of people who died. The major difference is in the punishments which will be handed out to the offenders (death penalty in China, slap on the wrist in America).

Do you think it would be reasonable for a French person to swear off all American products based on the salmonella outbreak in peanut butter?

[slampoet]

6. Wow, an alternative to thinking.

[marksmithfield]

7. And an hour later you still are'nt eating it....

Does anyone remember the report of human hair used in the production of soy sauce, I thought it was nuts, but now I'm not so sure.

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. Oh, well, then. As long as China says it's safe, I guess it is now ok.

Don't you just feel ever so much better when the governent reassures you?

[Jim Sagle]

4. 'We investigated ourselves, and found ourselves to be A OK.'