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Saturday 24 January 2009
Sanlu just a scapegoat in scandal, says lawyer
Sending top Sanlu executives to jail and executing milk middlemen does not resolve the deep-seated problems in the country’s dairy industry and food-safety regulation system, experts say.
Sending top Sanlu executives to jail and executing milk middlemen does not resolve the deep-seated problems in the country’s dairy industry and food-safety regulation system, experts say.
“It is not just Sanlu, melamine has been found in the products of 22 dairy companies. The entire industry is involved,” Beijing-based lawyer Guan Anping said.
“The government should not just punish a few. It should track down all who have added melamine to milk products. Only by doing that will there be hope for the industry.”
Mr. Guan said Sanlu was a scapegoat in the scandal, as the entire dairy industry was responsible for selling tainted milk.
“The problems with the dairy industry have not been solved. Technically speaking, those who directly added melamine should receive a heavier sentence, while those who sold the tainted milk should receive a lighter sentence.”
He said the practice of adding the industrial chemical melamine to substandard milk to make it thicker and appear to have a higher protein content was an open secret in the mainland’s dairy industry, yet no one had spoken out about the practice until it got out of control and children died.
“It wasn’t until so many children had fallen sick that the tumour was exposed,” he said. “It is a moral problem. The entire industry had given tacit approval of such a practice.”
Authorities appear to be trying to put all the blame on Sanlu to assuage public anger, while working with other major brands such as Mengniu and Yili to restore public confidence, even though melamine was also found in their products. Sanlu is the only company to have executives face criminal charges over the milk scandal.
Jiang Weibo , a food science professor at Chinese Agricultural University, said there were conflicts of interests within the dairy sector’s quality control system, as inspectors were selected from within the industry.
“What they are doing is having a person supervise himself. These people would not expose their own problems. What we need is a third party to supervise the industry.”
Professor Jiang said there were many other additives to dairy products apart from melamine.
“For example, there are thickeners and flavourings added to milk products. How to supervise their quality and quantity remains a question.”
He said it was common for people to use hydrogen peroxide to sterilise the equipment used in milk production, and the chemical was extremely harmful to health if it got into the milk.
Professor Jiang said the order to ban 17 additives to food in general was also hard to enforce.
“Inspectors usually look at the packaging to see if something has illegal additives. But they cannot trace whether the additives are safe. How do they ensure the additives are edible or are chemicals for industrial use?”
He said the Ministry of Health, as a watchdog for food safety, stepped in only when there was an obvious link with a particular additive and a large number of victims, but most illegal additives damaged health slowly.
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Sanlu just a scapegoat in scandal, says lawyer
Josephine Ma
24 January 2009
Sending top Sanlu executives to jail and executing milk middlemen does not resolve the deep-seated problems in the country’s dairy industry and food-safety regulation system, experts say.
“It is not just Sanlu, melamine has been found in the products of 22 dairy companies. The entire industry is involved,” Beijing-based lawyer Guan Anping said.
“The government should not just punish a few. It should track down all who have added melamine to milk products. Only by doing that will there be hope for the industry.”
Mr. Guan said Sanlu was a scapegoat in the scandal, as the entire dairy industry was responsible for selling tainted milk.
“The problems with the dairy industry have not been solved. Technically speaking, those who directly added melamine should receive a heavier sentence, while those who sold the tainted milk should receive a lighter sentence.”
He said the practice of adding the industrial chemical melamine to substandard milk to make it thicker and appear to have a higher protein content was an open secret in the mainland’s dairy industry, yet no one had spoken out about the practice until it got out of control and children died.
“It wasn’t until so many children had fallen sick that the tumour was exposed,” he said. “It is a moral problem. The entire industry had given tacit approval of such a practice.”
Authorities appear to be trying to put all the blame on Sanlu to assuage public anger, while working with other major brands such as Mengniu and Yili to restore public confidence, even though melamine was also found in their products. Sanlu is the only company to have executives face criminal charges over the milk scandal.
Jiang Weibo , a food science professor at Chinese Agricultural University, said there were conflicts of interests within the dairy sector’s quality control system, as inspectors were selected from within the industry.
“What they are doing is having a person supervise himself. These people would not expose their own problems. What we need is a third party to supervise the industry.”
Professor Jiang said there were many other additives to dairy products apart from melamine.
“For example, there are thickeners and flavourings added to milk products. How to supervise their quality and quantity remains a question.”
He said it was common for people to use hydrogen peroxide to sterilise the equipment used in milk production, and the chemical was extremely harmful to health if it got into the milk.
Professor Jiang said the order to ban 17 additives to food in general was also hard to enforce.
“Inspectors usually look at the packaging to see if something has illegal additives. But they cannot trace whether the additives are safe. How do they ensure the additives are edible or are chemicals for industrial use?”
He said the Ministry of Health, as a watchdog for food safety, stepped in only when there was an obvious link with a particular additive and a large number of victims, but most illegal additives damaged health slowly.
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