Mengniu scandal puts spotlight on safety standards
After bizarre news of abnormally big-headed babies who had been fed fake milk formula and of infants suffering from kidney stones caused by melamine-laced dairy products, mainland consumers now face a new scare - a high-end liquid milk product that may cause cancer.
The recent string of scares is forcing consumers to question why milk, a vital source of nutrition, is causing more harm than good and to doubt that milk producers are taking efforts to improve safety standards.
On Wednesday, China Mengniu Dairy, the country's top milk producer, was in the spotlight as the mainland product quality watchdog announced it was looking into whether the company's fast-growing, high-margin brand Milk Deluxe was safe for consumption.
At the centre of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine investigation is a bone-strengthening additive Mengniu uses, osteoblast milk protein. Some researchers claim that an overdose could increase the chances of developing cancerous growth or breast cancer in women.
The news came nearly six months after a scandal involving melamine-tainted milk products from domestic dairies that were blamed for the deaths of six babies and nearly 300,000 others falling sick.
