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.'
