China baby milk scare scandal

Chinese officials have ordered widespread checks on dairy products and a recall of tainted items after thousands of babies became ill. Liz Kennedy reports.

For more than a week, worried parents have crowded hospitals across the country, all hoping that urgent medical treatment will be enough to overcome the tainted milk that’s in their child's system. While thousands of babies have become sick, thousands more are still at risk, raising fears that the death toll could rise as more cases are diagnosed.

The scandal first emerged last week when the Sanlu Group, China’s biggest baby milk maker, announced that some babies had developed kidney stones and complications after drinking milk made from powder tainted with melamine. As cases of contamination soared, the Chinese government took immediate action. And late on Friday, officials said that all children who’d consumed tainted milk would be given free treatment.

The position that China now finds itself in is a result of unscrupulous farmers and negligent food companies. Tests show that in an attempt to cut costs, the nitrogen-rich compound melamine was added to water down milk in order to pass quality inspections. Contamination was thought to be restricted to powdered baby milk. But officials have confirmed that 10% of liquid milk from three of China’s dairies was also tainted with melamine. The companies have been named as Mengniu Dairy Group, Yili Industrial Group and Bright Dairy.

With uncertainty about China’s milk production growing by the day, Malaysia has now joined neighboring Singapore in the ban of all Chinese milk imports. And as the European Union and the US demanded an explanation, Chinese quality officials have been trying to regain consumer confidence, saying that most milk was safe. With a string of food scares in recent years, it may take some time to restore their trust. Liz Kennedy, Reuters.

參考中文翻譯：

數千嬰兒因食用奶粉患病后，中國官方下令對奶制品進行大范圍的檢查，召回污染奶制品。

一周多以來，全國各地的醫院里都聚集著憂心忡忡的父母，希望緊急醫療措施能夠解決問題奶粉給他們的嬰兒造成的問題。數千名嬰兒已經患病，還有數千名仍然處于危險期，越來越多的病例被確診，增加了人們對死亡數字上升的恐懼。

丑聞上周首次傳出，中國最大的嬰兒奶粉制造商之一，三鹿集團宣布，他們生產的奶粉受到三聚氰胺污染，導致嬰兒腎結石等一系列癥狀。隨著病例增加，中國政府采取緊急措施。周五，官方宣布，所有受到污染奶粉影響的嬰兒可以接受免費治療。

中國政府調查結果顯示，這一問題是由于奶農的肆無忌憚和食品公司的疏忽造成的。測試顯示，三聚氰胺含氮量高，為了降低成本，通過質量檢測，奶農像牛奶中加入三聚氰胺。中國官方確認，來自中國三家奶制品商10%的液態奶還有三聚氰胺。分別是蒙牛，伊利和光明。

由于中國奶制品的不確定性與日俱增，麻辣西亞緊隨新加坡之后，禁止從中國進口奶制品。歐盟和美國方面要求中國給出合理解釋，中國質檢官員試圖挽回消費者信心，表示大多數牛奶是安全的。由于近年來一系列的食品安全問題，要重樹消費者的信任還需要一定的時間。