'Key' melamine producer arrested in Hebei
Hebei police have arrested a former dairy farmer who they say is the country's biggest producer of melamine-laced powder destined for milk, state media reported.
Zhang Yujun , from Quzhou county , was caught in Handan , according to Xinhua. In addition, eight of his customers - dairy farmers and additive vendors - had been caught in Baoding , Tangshan and Zhangjiakou , according to the report.
Zhang was still a dairy farmer when he learned how to produce the powder, which boosts protein readings, by mixing melamine and maltodextrin, Xinhua quoted unnamed police sources as saying. It was a combination that 'could raise the nitrogen content and would not easily evaporate'. Maltodextrin is an easily digestible food additive made from starch.
He then moved to Jinan , Shandong , and mass-produced more than 600 tonnes of the powder from September last year to August of this, making more than 500,000 yuan (HK$570,190) in profit. All of the powder was sold to milk collection stations, the report said.
Thirty-six people had been arrested since the tainted-milk scandal was exposed early last month, Xinhua said.
Melamine is an industrial chemical and not a legitimate food additive but was found in baby formula.
At least four babies have died and tens of thousands of others have been diagnosed with urinary tract problems such as kidney stones as a result of drinking the milk.
As outraged members of the public targeted dairies for being greedy and ignoring public health, they protested that they were victims of greedy farmers, who may have added the illegal additives to fresh milk to help it pass quality tests.
Senior executives of three milk giants have publicly apologised and tried to assure the public that the companies have stepped up inspections to ensure their products are safe.
Mengniu group vice-president Zhao Yuanhua said the dairy business employed monitors of milk collection stations around the clock to ensure nothing was added to the milk.
'Be it government inspection or analysis from the companies, loopholes exist in the transport phase,' Ms Zhao said during an interview with China Central Television.
'So we have more than 8,000 people stationed at milk stations to monitor workers, the station and the milk containers.'
Yili vice-president Jin Biao said on the same programme that the group had also sent people to milk stations to monitor milking, packaging and transport.
He said trucks were monitored by global positioning systems to ensure they did not stop for long periods before reaching the factories and the milk was inspected strictly upon arrival.
The president of Bright Dairy, Guo Benheng , said the group had stopped collecting milk at stations and was conducting checks according to stricter European standards.
