Dhaka, Sept 21: Chinese companies faced another blow on Sunday when authorities in Bangladesh banned three brands of powdered milk exported by the companies blamed for selling tainted milk that has sickened at least 6,200 babies and killed four in China.
Beijing said last week that the chemical melamine, which is used to make plastics, had been discovered in milk powder and other products such as liquid milk, yoghurt and ice cream.
The director general of the Bangladeshi Standard and Testing Institute, Azmal Hossain, told a news agency they had found three brands of powdered milk exported by the Yashili and Suncare companies being sold in markets.
"We have banned the marketing and sales of the brands until further order," Hossain said.
Samples of New Zealand milk powder brands had also been gathered from markets and would be tested, he said.
New Zealand dairy giant Fonterra is a joint venture partner of Chinese milk manufacturer Sanlu Group, which has been affected by the product safety scandal.
Melamine can make products look like they are bursting with protein but if consumed in large amounts can be lethal.
US coffee chain Starbucks has stopped serving drinks with milk in many Chinese outlets.
40 tonnes of Chinese food recalled in S Korea since 2006
More than 40 tonnes of Chinese-imported food products has been recalled in South
Korea since 2006 because they contained inedible or harmful substances, a news report said on Sunday.
The agency, citing a report by the Korea Food and Drug Administration to Parliament, said 40.6 tonnes of imports had been discarded as bacteria, carcinogens and other banned additives were found in them.
The food safety regulator reports Chinese-imported cookies and cakes were last year found repeatedly to contain cancer-causing substances like cyclamate nitrofuran, according to the agency.
Earlier this year, it also recalled 13 tonnes of
Chinese-imported snacks because they were found to contain a
higher level of toluene, a toxic chemical, than food safety
regulations allow, the agency added.
WHO hits out at China on milk scandal
The World Health Organisation (WHO) said today it is helping China solve its tainted milk formula problem, while criticising the government for initially failing to alert the international community.
Beijing officially sought the WHO's help on September 11,
telling the UN body it had monitored 6,244 cases of people
ingesting formula tainted with the industrial chemical
melamine, WHO Western Pacific director Shigeru Omi told a
news conference in Manila.
While there has been no confirmed cases of tainted milk
being exported to other countries, both Hong Kong and
Singapore have reported similar problems and the WHO said it
has advised other countries to take precautions.
Bureau Report