The parents of the first child to die after drinking baby milk laced with a lethal chemical have succeeded in winning compensation.

Chinese parents win toxic milk payout
article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"Yi Yongsheng and Jiao Hongfang, from Gangu in Gansu province, said they had accepted £20,000 after their five-month-old son died from kidney failure.

Twenty-two Chinese dairy companies admitted in September that they had sold milk tainted with melamine, an industrial chemical that causes the formation of kidney stones and crystals in children.

So far at least six children have died and a further 300,000 infants have been sickened.

Yi and Jiao's son died in May. By accepting the compensation money from Sanlu, which has filed for bankruptcy, they have given up the right to sue the company. Shen Xianlei, one of their lawyers, said the couple was unlikely to get more than 200,000 yuan by taking their case to court in Gansu.

Dong Junming, another lawyer working for the couple, said: "Legal procedures are too complicated for them, which made them decide to take the money."

The payout was part of a widely-criticised scheme announced by the government last month. Under the current plans, families whose children died would receive 200,000 yuan, while others would receive between 2,000 and 30,000 yuan depending on the severity of the illness."

Further melamine contaminated food: Japan finds melamine in Chinese-made pumpkin steam buns

Japan finds melamine in Chinese-made pumpkin steam buns
Telegraph article

Extract:

"An investigation was launched after traces of the chemical were detected in buns which were made in China and served in Japan by the buffet restaurant company Nilax Inc.

Milk tainted with melamine, a substance commonly used to make plastics and tan leather, has been linked to the death of four babies in China and sickness among tens of thousands of children.

While there were no reports of illness among Japanese consumers, the nation's confidence in the food industry has been severely dented by a raft of scandals, ranging from tainted rice to faked best before labels."

High levels of melamine, the chemical in the China milk scandal, have been discovered in Hong Kong in eggs from the mainland.

China milk scandal spreads to eggs
Article in the Telegraph

Extracts:

"The authorities on the island said that the eggs contained twice the legal limit of melamine, an industrial chemical which made over 50,000 infants ill and killed four when it was discovered in powdered baby milk over the summer.

Melamine, which is more commonly found in plastics, was added by unscrupulous traders to "bulk up" milk and make it appear richer in protein.

However, the chemical triggers the formation of kidney stones."

"Hong Kong has started testing meat and vegetables coming from the mainland. One theory is that the chickens may have eaten feed contaminated with the chemical.

It has also emerged that cyromazine, a derivative of melamine, is widely used in pesticides and animal feed. This could have been absorbed and pass upwards through the food chain.

"As we have found melamine in eggs, we shall also test chicken meat and we shall also look at offal, for example chicken kidneys and pig kidneys," said Mr Chow."

"In Japan, a major food producer announced a recall of 2.7 million pizzas and packs of sausages after it discovered three times the government limit of cyanide in its water supply. Itoham Foods put advertisements in national newspapers apologising for the contamination. Last Friday, the country's largest maker of instant noodles, Nissin, recalled its Cup Noodle line after a woman was taken ill with insecticide poisoning."

Heinz and Mars have been drawn into China's tainted milk crisis, following Cadbury which had to withdraw 11 brands of chocolate from the Far East.

China tainted milk scandal: Heinz and Mars drawn in
Article in the Telegraph

Extracts:

"Heinz said it would stop using Chinese milk in its food processing operations in mainland China and Hong Kong after a batch of baby food was found to be contaminated with melamine.

Melamine, a chemical used in the manufacture of plastic, has been blamed for killing at least four babies and making 53,000 other infants sick after being added to milk supplies in China.

Mars meanwhile challenged findings by the Indonesian government that suggested Chinese-made chocolates including Snickers bars and M&Ms were also tainted with melamine.

The government said it was recalling the chocolates from sale, but Mars issued a statement saying both its chocolates and its milk supplies had been cleared by separate tests in China and elsewhere."

"Heinz discovered at the end of last week that one batch of "Heinz Intelligence Many Many Vegetable Cereal" on sale in Hong Kong showed traces of melamine.

All other Heinz varieties were melamine-free, it said.

The decision to recall 270 cases of baby food, and switch to non-Chinese sources of milk, followed the announcement on Monday by Cadbury that it had found traces of melamine in some Chinese-made chocolates.

It is withdrawing all 11 brands from markets supplied by its China plant, including Australia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the pacific islands of Nauru and Christmas Island.

The Indonesian Food and Drug Monitoring Agency said 12 products distributed in the country had tested positive for melamine, including M&Ms, Snickers and Oreo biscuits.

Mars said it would comply with a government recall but said that all its products had been cleared by government tests in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, South Korea and Malaysia."

"Kraft foods, which makes Oreo biscuits, said it was also questioning the methodology of the Indonesian tests."

Cadbury confirms melamine and police have arrested 22 people accused of being involved in China's tainted milk scandal.

China tainted milk scandal: Cadbury confirms melamine and 22 arrested
Article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"The arrests came as Cadbury recalled Dairy Milk bars and other chocolates from across the Far East after traces of melamine were found in its Chinese made chocolates.

State media Xinhau reported that more than 480lb of the industrial chemical melamine was seized during raids.

The arrests took place in Hebei province and Chinese media reported that a police investigation showed that melamine had been produced in underground plants and then sold to farms and milk purchasers.

Cadbury had earlier said it was recalling 11 types of Chinese made products after tests found they contained melamine.

A Cadbury spokesman said it was too early to say how much of the chemical was in the chocolates."

UK children who eat more than a bar of chocolate a day could be at risk of falling ill if the snack was made using contaminated Chinese milk powder

China milk scandal: Children warned of risk from contaminated products
Article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"For the average six-year-old child eating more than 42grams of chocolate or more than 44grams of biscuits with creamy filling a day would exceed safe levels if the product was heavily contaminated, The European Food Safety Agency experts have calculated.

They stressed there is no evidence that highly contaminated biscuits and confectionary made from the contaminated milk has been imported into EU countries.

But based on a 'worst case scenario' small children who eat a lot of toffee, fudge, biscuits and milk chocolate daily could be at risk of consuming more than three times the safe limit of melamine, a report warned.

In China the contaminated milk scandal has seen 53,000 babies in ill and killing four.

The European Union has moved to ban imports of dairy-based Chinese food products, including biscuits, sweets and chocolate, aimed at children or infants amid the growing global health scare.

New "precautionary" restrictions imposed by the European Commission will come into force on Friday along with tighter EU border checks on all Chinese food products entering Europe."

Tesco has withdrawn a brand of Chinese children's sweets from sale over fears they contain a potentially deadly chemical.

China milk poisoning chemical found in Tesco sweets
Article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"The supermarket recalled White Rabbit Creamy Candies after it was found they contained a substance called melamine that has harmed Chinese babies.

It is the same chemical that has contaminated formula milk in China, causing four babies to die and around 53,000 children to become ill.

Food testers in Hong Kong and Singapore raised the alarm after they found traces of melamine in the product.

The sweets are stocked in branches of Tesco which sell ethnic foods from around the world."

Nearly 53,000 children in China are now sick from milk powder contaminated by an industrial chemical, the government has said.

China milk scandal: 53,000 children fall ill from contaminated milk powder
Article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"A total of 52,857 children had been brought to hospitals after falling ill, a Health Ministry spokesman said. Most had "basically recovered" but 12,892 of them remained hospitalised, he added.

The ministry said the toll of children ill from milk powder contaminated with the industrial chemical melamine had risen dramatically from the previous figure of 6,244.

A further 39,965 children had "received clinical treatment and advice" before being sent home.

More than 80 per cent of the sick were aged under two. So far, four deaths have been blamed on the toxic milk powder, which causes kidney stones and other complications. Another 104 children are in a serious condition.

Wen Jiabao, the Chinese Premier, visited hospitals in the capital of Beijing in an attempt to show the public that his government was taking action following the incident, which has once more shaken trust in Chinese products. Last year saw several scares over toxic and shoddy goods."

Three of China's best-known brands of liquid milk were tainted with melamine, the chemical at the centre of an expanding health scare

China's milk scandal spreads to Olympic brand
Article on the Telegraph

Extract:

"The government released the findings as it tried to play down the scandal, which began with baby milk but is rapidly spreading to wider distrust inside the country of "made in China" products.

Singapore on Friday suspended the import and sale of all milk and milk products from China after local tests found samples containing the potentially deadly industrial chemical melamine.

Some online commentators are expressing disgust that milk from one of the brands, an Olympic sponsor, was produced separately, tested and cleared for use in Olympic venues.

"Melamine for us, safety for our guests," said one wry comment.

The latest tests were carried out on supermarket milk from more than 400 suppliers, including foreign firms such as Nestle. The government said 24 batches of milk from 295 samples taken from three brands - Mengniu, Yili, and Guangming - were found to be tainted with melamine.

By Friday night, 300 of Starbucks’ 330 outlets in China were only serving soy milk in their coffees.

The chemical is alleged to have been added to watered down raw milk supplies by farmers and middlemen to boost its protein readings. It can cause kidney stones, and has been blamed for the deaths of four babies who drank milk made from formula from China's largest low-cost producer, Sanlu.

According to the latest figures, 6,244 babies have fallen sick and 158 are suffering acute kidney failure.

Mengniu, whose successful television sponsorships and reputation for quality have made it a darling of investors, is listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange and is involved in joint ventures with European partners.

Yili was the sponsor, and milk supplier, for the Beijing Olympics, but a senior health official said that special measures had been taken.

"We applied special scanning management procedures for all Olympic products," the official, Li Changjiang, said. "All stages of food product supplies, including milk products, were strictly monitored step-by-step by us, with no loopholes in the process."

Mengniu and Yili are China's biggest dairy companies. Mengniu was sole supplier for Starbucks in China, until its involvement in the scandal was confirmed."

The Chinese government has admitted that three infants have died and over 6,000 are sick as a crisis over contaminated baby milk spread nationwide.

Six thousand babies sick from tainted Chinese milk
Article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"Almost 160 babies are now suffering from "acute kidney failure" as the scandal over the poisoned milk continues to grow.

More than one-fifth of China's powdered baby milk producers have been found to have been using melamine, an industrial chemical more commonly found in plastics and glues, to bulk up their milk.

Melamine makes milk appear richer in protein but causes kidney stones to form in infants. China has already been accused of covering up the crisis in order to save face during the Olympic Games after it emerged that officials had known about the problems eight weeks ago.

Although the government has insisted that "the milk powder produced by most companies is safe", panicky parents crowded hospitals, especially families using Sanlu, the most toxic brand.

At the Shanghai Children's Hospital in the central Jing'an district, a nurse said over 700 parents had brought their children in to be tested. It had only been half a day since news broke that the scandal was not confined to Hebei, Jiangsu and Gansu provinces, as originally thought.

Although wealthy Shanghainese parents rarely use Chinese milk powder, preferring more trustworthy foreign brands, the scandal had severely affected the city's migrant workers, who tend to be poorer and uneducated"

"The list of producers caught up in the scandal includes some of China's largest dairy groups, such as Yili, an official sponsor of the Beijing Olympics, and Mengniu, the country's largest milk company. Mengniu has started a recall of some of its lines. Powdered baby milk is now a Pounds1.8 billion industry in China."

"The scandal comes after the "big-headed babies" incident in Anhui in 2004, when 13 babies died after being fed milk with little nutritional value."