Two suspects and nearly 11 tonnes of fake baby formula made with starch and sucrose were seized from a warehouse-turned-factory in Shenyang, Liaoning province, on Monday in the latest milk powder scandal on the mainland.
Mainland media quoted Shenyang police as saying that manufacturing such fake infant formula - which contained no milk at all - could cost as little as five yuan (HK$5.90) a bag, using raw materials including dextrin, refined vegetable oil, trace elements and different flavourings. The reports did not say how much a bag weighed.
If it hadn't been seized, the fake baby formula would have been sold to local markets in 30-bag lots for 200 yuan, or 6.66 yuan a bag. Quality baby formula sells for about 200 yuan a kilogram in mainland supermarkets.
Police also seized a large quantity of counterfeit packaging, purporting to be prestigious mainland formula brands, from the 700-square-metre factory. They said the packaging would make it very difficult for parents to tell the difference between fake and authentic products.
Although authorities insisted that the fake milk powder produced at the warehouse had not made it onto the market, state media said the two suspects, both in their 30s and from Heilongjiang province, had made fake formula valued at more than 1 million yuan across the country in the past year, much of which had been sold to young parents.
It's not the first time that unscrupulous mainland food manufacturers have produced fake formula with no nutritional value. In 2004, about 200 babies in Fuyang , Anhui province, were left with enlarged heads after being fed fake infant formula of little nutritional value.