The melamine-contamination scandal has shaken Chinese people's faith in the safety of the nation's food supply.
Melamine is commonly used in coatings and laminates, wood adhesives, fabric coatings, ceiling tiles and flame retardants.
CNN: Almost 13,000 Chinese children sickened by tainted milk
Melamine, an industrial chemical used in plastics and adhesives, mimics the presence of protein in lab tests.
Most of those sickened as a result of the adulteration were babies fed formula that contained melamine.
Health experts say ingesting melamine can lead to kidney stones, urinary tract ulcers, and eye and skin irritation.
CNN: Almost 13,000 Chinese children sickened by tainted milk
Democratic accountability via free elections is the only lasting antidote for cadmium rice, melamine baby formula and other horrors.
The Chinese company Sanlu had illegally added the chemical melamine to diluted milk products to falsely boost protein levels.
FORBES: Chinese Mothers Risk Arrest For Buying Safe Baby Formula
Testing by Sanlu found tripolycyanamide, also known as melamine, in 700 tons of its product, the news agency reported.
Public concerns also remains over milk products, after a high-profile scandal involving the use of melamine in baby milk formula.
Democratic accountability via free elections is the only lasting antidote for cadmium rice, melamine baby formula and other environmental horrors.
In 2008, at least six babies died and another 300, 000 were made ill by drinking infant formula tainted with melamine.
Government checks in September found melamine in baby formula and other milk products sold by more than 20 dairy companies.
Observers say a 2008 scandal where the industrial chemical melamine was found in baby formula is driving the demand for foreign brands.
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The authorities are now trying to trace around 100 tonnes of melamine-contaminated milk powder that is believed to be back in circulation.
Much to the government's embarrassment, a high-profile campaign to clean up the milk industry in the wake of the melamine scandal appears to have failed.
Among the most notorious, six babies died and 300, 000 were sickened in 2008 from drinking infant formula and other dairy tainted with the industrial chemical melamine.
After thousands of children were sickened by melamine-contaminated milk last year, OCI helped their parents press for compensation, upstaging a government-backed compensation scheme which offered lower amounts.
We have only just switched our son over to cow's milk but the health ministry says it is a common problem with farmers to add melamine to milk.
There have been recent reports of melamine-laced products being discovered.
Officials said the team is concentrating on more than the two companies believed to have exported the melamine in wheat flour mislabeled as wheat gluten and rice protein concentrate.
Foreign-made baby formula is popular in China, especially since a locally-manufactured formula laced with the industrial chemical melamine killed six infants in 2008 and caused another 300, 000 to fall ill.
An import alert for all 46 shipments of vegetable protein from China to the United States remained in place, and those products have yet to be proven melamine-free, Acheson said.
Last September, at the height of the scandal over melamine-tainted milk, rumours began to spread that Baidu had accepted payment to expunge stories on the subject from its search results.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong's Center for Food Safety announced Sunday that a sample of Nestle Dairy Farm Pure Milk, sold in one-liter packs for catering use only, had tested positive for melamine.
CNN: Almost 13,000 Chinese children sickened by tainted milk
For instance, the scandal over melamine-contaminated milk powder last year was handled relatively well by the central government, with punishments handed down to those responsible and compensation paid to the victims.
As part of the FDA's domestic protein surveillance assignment, 63 samples of protein from Arizona, California, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Iowa and Minnesota have not tested positive for melamine yet, but 23 of those test results are pending.
And they prefer foreign brands: they still remember the melamine scandal of 2008, when at least six babies died because Chinese firms had added a toxic chemical to raw milk to make it appear higher in protein.
Similar worries seem to have prompted the arrest in November of Zhao Lianhai, who had been campaigning on behalf of the parents of some 300, 000 children who were affected by milk powder tainted with melamine, an industrial chemical, in 2008.
"Following press reports in Hong Kong earlier today claiming that traces of melamine had been found in a Nestle growing up milk, Nestle is confident that none of its products in China is made from milk adulterated with melamine, " the company said.
CNN: Almost 13,000 Chinese children sickened by tainted milk
In fact, consolidation is happening because the government believes it can ensure better pollution oversight, labor conditions and quality control of production processes in large state-run enterprises than in the multitude of tiny private businesses that cut corners in pollution controls and make mistakes like getting melamine into the dairy supply chain.
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