Two arrested as 11 tonnes of fake formula seized
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.
Doctors warned that feeding babies such counterfeits could cause malnutrition, growth retardation or death. At least six infants died in the melamine-tainted milk scandal in 2008, while more than 300,000 children suffered kidney damage.
Angry parents have found it very difficult to avoid fake or tainted formula if they cannot afford imported milk powder. Last year, mainland dairy producers were caught several times using melamine-tainted milk powder seized more than a year ago in new products, prompting authorities to launch a 10-day emergency crackdown.
Although Beijing tried to show its determination to improve food safety by forcing Li Changjiang, former head of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, to step down over the melamine scandal in 2008, he was appointed deputy chairman of a working group combating online pornography the next year.
Mainland customs authorities estimate that the country has consumed 50 per cent more imported milk powder since the milk scandals were exposed.
A spokesman for the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference said in Beijing yesterday that those convicted of manufacturing tainted food could face the death penalty under recent revisions to the Criminal Code.
