Health inspections have shown that Melamine was found in milk from three different dairies in China.This issue was brought to attention when a milk powder was discovered to have made 6,000 ill and also killed four babies.Melamine is a chemical that is found in adhesives and some types of plastic. Raw milk in China is usually diluted with water, taking away some of the protein content. Since melamine contains high levels of nitrogen content, it is believed that the Melamine was used to make the milk seem higher in protein.A baby being treated for Melamine poisoning :(
Melamine was not approved with any of the national authorities and should not have been placed in any sort of milk for any reason. The General Administration of Quality Supervision did multiple tests on different dairies' milk products. The results showed that Mengniu Dairy Group and Yili Industrial Group had more than eight milligrams of Melamine in each container of milk. All products that came out positive in the test results were recalled. 18 of the people involved in the milk issue were arrested and about 150 of the children that got sick from the powdered milk, it is said, will have kidney failure in the near future.Melamine powder
This actually hasn’t been the first occurrence of this tainted milk scandal. A few years back in 2007, there was traces of Melamine found in key ingredients in pet foods imported from China. The pet food was sold to the United States. It cause kidney failure to many dogs and cats killing a vast amount of them. Obviously leaving many pet lovers and owners angry. Melamine has also been found in a type of Chinese coffee.With China’s bad reputation, it isn’t a surprise to some people that this has happened. It is hard for some citizens to trust their countries products and I realize why it could be a huge problem. Officials of China deny that there is even really an issue and that nobody should hesitate to drink any milk now. I think that maybe if they realized how big of an issue it really is then maybe it won’t happen again, but the fact that they don’t do much to make sure it doesn’t reoccur, could be the reason why it does.China milk powder
Links and sources: Pictures found with Google. I used two different articles.One was from The New York Times. The other was from BBC News
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