Premium Essay

Melamine Milk Powder

In: Social Issues

Submitted By helenasuisui
Words 1410
Pages 6
English 102
Professor Morgan
Yuedan Zeng
11/30/2011
Worrying Food Safety in China: Melamine milk powder Every year before I go back to China, many relatives and friends ask me to bring some milk powders and infant foods. Why? Because people in China think the food safety is untrustworthy, a big amount of people were sickened and killed by food. Unlike the food safety issue in U.S, which is caused by biological reasons mostly, most of incidents of safety in China are man-made. The Food Safety Law has been enacted for two years, but the food safety issues emerge endlessly. It often said that food is the first necessity of the people; food is the most basic condition for survival. If the food is not safe then the life does not have safeguard. A major food safety incident in China was made public in September 2008. Kidney and urinary tract effects, including kidney stones, affected about 300,000 Chinese infants and young children, with six reported deaths. Melamine had been deliberately added at milk-collecting stations to diluted raw milk ostensibly to boost its protein content (Tritscher 1). Milk powder produced by Sanlu Group was found to contain 2563 mg of melamine per kg, while the allowable amount should be 15 mg(Yuan 22). It is not the first time that the scandal of milk powder came out. In April, 2004, more than 200 infants in Anhui Province were diagnosed to have a disease, which caused the infants' heads to grow much bigger than normal ones. It was found that the substandard milk powder produced by a factory in Fuyang City, east China's Anhui Province, was the cause of the disease (Yuan 23). Soon after the Sanlu scandal, melamine was found in liquid milk and yogurts, frozen desserts, powdered milk and cereal products, confectioneries, cakes and biscuits, protein powders, and some processed foodstuffs. Subsequently, a variety of nondairy products

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

Case Study

...China’s Tainted Baby Milk Powder: Rumored Control of Online News On July 16, 2008, it was announced that several Chinese producers of baby milk powder had been adding melamine, a chemical usually used in countertops, to increase the “richness” of their milk powder and to increase the protein count. Shockingly, the melamine-tainted milk powder was responsible for the deaths of four infants and the sickening of more than 6,200 more.1 Milk manufacturers had been using melamine as a low-cost way of “enriching” their product in both taste and protein count. Melamine, a toxic chemical that makes countertops very durable, damages kidneys. 2 This fact came to world attention on March 16, 2007, when Menu Foods of Streetsville, Ontario, Canada, recalled dog and cat foods that it had mixed in Canadafrom Chinese ingredients that were found to include melamine.3 Very quickly thereafter,pet owners claims and class action lawsuits threatened to put the company into bankruptcy until settlements were worked out.4 A subsequent investigation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) led to the recall of pet food by major manufacturers, including Del Monte, Nestle Purina, Menu Foods, and many others.5 On February 6,2008, “the FDA announced that that two Chinese nationals and the businesses they operate, along with a U.S. company and its president and chief executive offi cer, were indicted by a federal grand jury for their roles in a scheme to import products purported to be...

Words: 745 - Pages: 3

Free Essay

International Exporting for Milk Powder

...from the melamine crisis and they have a superior safety image over imported milk powder. According to the report, the China’s import of milk powder will increase significantly in 2011 and responsible for most of the growth for Chinese milk powder consumption. The import of whole milk powder in 2011 is estimated to top 400,000 metric tons and the import of nonfat milk powder is estimated to 100,000 metric tons. After the melamine crisis, Chinese consumers are threat of contaminated milk powder and there is a strong preference of imported milk powder. Due to the threat of Chinese consumers to buy Chinese made milk powder, there is a strong demand of import milk powder in China. Thus, US made milk powder is a good product to be exported to China. FAS Site http://gain.fas.usda.gov/Recent%20GAIN%20Publications/Dairy%20and%20Products%20Annual_Beijing_China%20-%20Peoples%20Republic%20of_10-22-2010.pdf China - Peoples Republic of Dairy and Products Annual 2010 Prepared By: Michael Woolsey, Jianping Zhang, Susan Zhang Date of report: 10/22/2010 Accessed: 4/7/2012 6a. Parent's Choice - Gentle Milk-Based Powder Infant Formula 6b. Name of the producer: PBM Products, LLC
 Address: 204 N. Main St.
Gordonsville, VA 22942
 Phone: (540) 832-3282 6c. Item Description Parent's Choice Gentle Milk-Based Infant Formula with Iron features one fourth of the lactose of a standard milk-based formula for infants with fussiness or gas. Parent's Choice - Gentle Milk-Based Powder Infant...

Words: 830 - Pages: 4

Free Essay

Case Study

...H 9B12C047 FOOD FOR THOUGHT: THE 2008 CHINA MILK SCANDAL1 Vivien K.G. Lim, Rashimah Rajah and Smrithi Prasad wrote this case solely to provide material for class discussion. The authors do not intend to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of a managerial situation. The authors may have disguised certain names and other identifying information to protect confidentiality. Richard Ivey School of Business Foundation prohibits any form of reproduction, storage or transmission without its written permission. Reproduction of this material is not covered under authorization by any reproduction rights organization. To order copies or request permission to reproduce materials, contact Ivey Publishing, Richard Ivey School of Business Foundation, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada, N6A 3K7; phone (519) 661-3208; fax (519) 661-3882; e-mail cases@ivey.uwo.ca. Copyright © 2012, National University of Singapore and Richard Ivey School of Business Foundation Version: 2012-11-14 In 2007, Sanlu, a Chinese milk manufacturing company based in Shijiazhuang, was recognized as a formidable force by its competitors as it had topped the list of local dairy producers for more than a decade. It was also the second biggest dairy producer in the world. Sanlu was the number one bestselling milk brand in China, responsible for 18.3 per cent of total national dairy sales in 2007.2 A year later, however, a scandal unfolded that brought not only Sanlu...

Words: 4602 - Pages: 19

Free Essay

Food Policy

...homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/foodpol The China melamine milk scandal and its implications for food safety regulation Xiaofang Pei a, Annuradha Tandon b, Anton Alldrick c, Liana Giorgi b,⇑, Wei Huang a, Ruijia Yang a a West China School of Public Health, Sichua University, Chengdu, China The Interdisciplinary Centre for Comparative Research in the Social Sciences, Austria c Camden BRI Food and Drink Research and Services, United Kingdom b a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t This article examines the development of the Chinese dairy sector since 2000 and investigates how this has affected food safety. The ongoing problems caused by melamine contamination are linked to the rapid and unregulated development of this sector. Currently, China is faced with demands – both from home and abroad – to improve its food safety record. This will necessitate it upgrades its regulatory framework to meet the standards of Codex Alimentarius and the EU. A serious restructuring of the dairy sector as well as of the public food safety control agencies is called for. The costs and benefits to be accrued by these reforms are the subject of this article. Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Article history: Received 16 February 2010 Received in revised form 20 January 2011 Accepted 3 March 2011 Available online 8 April 2011 Keywords: Safety Melamine Dairy China EU Regulations Introduction Fewer than three years ago, melamine was a term known only to chemists. This changed...

Words: 5155 - Pages: 21

Premium Essay

Chinese Milk Scandal

...ch CHINESE MILK SCANDAL 2008 INTRODUCTION The 2008 Chinese milk scandal was a food safety incident in the People's Republic of China, involving milk and infant formula, and other food materials and components, adulterated with melamine. By November 2008, China reported an estimated 300,000 victims, with six infants dying from kidney stones and other kidney damage, and a further 860 babies hospitalized. The chemical appeared to have been added to milk to cause it to appear to have higher protein content. In a separate incident four years before, watered-down milk had resulted in 13 infant deaths from malnutrition. The scandal broke on 16 July, after sixteen infants in Gansu Province, who had been fed on milk powder produced by Shijiazhuang-based Sanlu Group, were diagnosed with kidney stones. After the initial focus on Sanlu — market leader in the budget segment — government inspections revealed the problem existed to a lesser degree in products from 21 other companies, including Mengniu, Yili, and Yashili. The issue raised concerns about food safety and political corruption in China, and damaged the reputation of China's food exports, with at least 11 countries stopping all imports of Chinese dairy products. As of July 2010, Chinese authorities were still reporting some seizures of melamine-contaminated dairy product in some provinces, though it was unclear whether these new contaminations constituted wholly new adulterations or were the result of illegal reuse...

Words: 330 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Business Ethics

... | | | | | |Professor: | | | Background Information In the past few years, we have seen numerous food safety scandals in China and rest of the world. Recycled cooking oil scandals, 2011 DEHP scandal, 2008 milk scandal, 2011 E.coli outbreak in Europe, 2006 E.coli outbreak in North America, and illegal additives in Red Bull, these are just...

Words: 3757 - Pages: 16

Premium Essay

Cim Full Essay

...Fonterra’s Company………………..2 Issues of Fonterra’s company.....................................3 Solution to Issues……………………………………4 Conclusion…………………………………………...5 Reference…………………………………………….6 Fonterra’s Milk Scandal: The Issues surrounding it and how can Fonterra’s managed the issue? Introduction Milk is a nutritional product very good for health and almost all age are using. The dairy industry is currently developing. Typically, the dairy market today has a millions of different brands of milk from around the world. Dairy industry development because the benefits of milk to provide for health people is extremely large. Targeting that benefit, so now has a lot of dairy company consecutive established for the purpose of competitive and to looking for profit from that industry but they don’t care about a business ethics. That led to some large companies do everything possible to get revenue as skipping the period in production to shorten the process and change or add some cheap has toxic component to decrease cost of production and increase profits. Such behavior has violated business ethics and caused a serious consequence to the health and the faith of consumers. Typical, Fonterra; the best dairy company in the world has violated of business ethics when related the scandal of the milk has toxic harmful to human health and loss of image of company. That issue must be considered and review to demonstrate that problems right or wrong. In addition, it is more important things to see...

Words: 2574 - Pages: 11

Premium Essay

Change Situation

...commencingfarmhouses all over New Zealand to customers and buyers in above 140 countries. About 10,485 New Zealand dairy farmers, representing approximately 96 per cent of all dairy farmers in the country, accommodatingly own Fonterra. These farmers supply over 14 billion litres of milk respectively each and every year. 'New Zealand’s pastured-based farmhouses are the start of Fonterra’s supply chain, which encompasses to consumers in 140 countries and into customers’household needs in Australasia, Asia, Africa and the Middle East, and Latin America.' As a willing organization, Fonterra is maintained and organized by the people who make advantages from Fonterra’s services. Cooperative members share similarly in the earnings of the business. In order to be a Fonterra stakeholder, farmers have to supply milk to the establishment in New Zealand. Fonterra shareholders can earn one share for each kilogram of milk solids they supply to the co-operative, with the allowance of ainadequate number of shareholders providing milk under contract preparations. As a co-operative, Fonterra distributes practically all its revenue to shareholders in the form of expenditure. This encompasses a farm gate milk price for every kilogram of milk solids on condition that, and a distributable profit for each share. With 13 members of successive board, made up of nine directors nominated by stakeholders and four superficially appointed directors, administrates the co-operative. This combinationcertifies a combination...

Words: 2692 - Pages: 11

Premium Essay

Ethics

...The 2008 Chinese milk scandal was a food safety incident in the People's Republic of China, involving milk and infant formula, and other food materials and components, adulterated with melamine. By November 2008, China reported an estimated 300,000 victims,[1] with six infants dying from kidney stones and other kidney damage, and an estimated 54,000 babies being hospitalised.[2][3] The chemical appeared to have been added to milk to cause it to appear to have a higher protein content. In a separate incident four years before, watered-down milk had resulted in 13 infant deaths from malnutrition.[4] The scandal broke on 16 July, after sixteen infants in Gansu Province, who had been fed on milk powder produced by Shijiazhuang-based Sanlu Group, were diagnosed with kidney stones.[cm 1] After the initial focus on Sanlu—market leader in the budget segment—government inspections revealed the problem existed to a lesser degree in products from 21 other companies, including Mengniu, Yili, and Yashili.[5] The issue raised concerns about food safety and political corruption in China, and damaged the reputation of China's food exports, with at least 11 countries stopping all imports of Chinese dairy products. A number of criminal prosecutions occurred, with two people being executed, another given a suspended death penalty, three others receiving life imprisonment, two receiving 15-year jail terms,[6] and seven local government officials, as well as the Director of the Administration...

Words: 254 - Pages: 2

Free Essay

Beech-Nut

...targets for a company is surely important to top executives, but more important is to make right decisions and judgments that align with their moral duty and obligation. Social responsibilities are sometimes confronted with a company’s benefits. It has an obligation to act to benefit society at large. For Anderson, he should behave as a responsible individual first rather than a CEO who only focuses on financial goals. It is also a duty for every individual or company to perform so as to maintain a balance between each other. Beech-nut is selling baby food to newly born babies. Parents instill great trust and expectations into Beech-nut’s products. Same cases also happened such as Sanlu Milk Company in China. Many babies died from Melamine contained in the milk powders. Business moral standards are facing crucial challenges in...

Words: 526 - Pages: 3

Free Essay

Food Adulteration

...I. Introduction: Food adulteration is a growing problem in Bangladesh as large numbers of consumers have become victims of consuming adulterated foods. This problem is becoming acute day by day. It is becoming essential to find out the reasons of food adulteration and how to solve this problem. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has estimated that 45 million people in Bangladesh suffer from food poisoning or some kind of food-borne diseases round the year. Adulteration of food with toxic chemicals harmful to health has reached an epidemic proportion in Bangladesh. The newspapers have out and out conferred it, as the ‘silent killer’. It is now very difficult to find a sector of food industry which is free of adulteration. Experts believe that 76% of foods of our country are adulterated. Alarming increase of adulteration of food commodities create a strong public opinion for combating the ferocity of the offence. The study first identifies what is food adulteration and types of food adulteration. Secondly, the study aims to provide some suggestion for removing this problem. II. What is food Adulteration? Food Adulteration is the act of adding or mixing something harmful, useless and unnecessary substance to food. In other words, any food item may be considered as adulterated if its nature and quality are not up to the standard. As a result of adulteration, food or drink becomes impure and unfit for human consumption. Unscrupulous traders normally adulterate food....

Words: 1758 - Pages: 8

Free Essay

Politics

...The United States of American (USA) is an economic and political giant; the USA is the world’s biggest economy in the year 2012 (CNNMoney, 2012), therefore they are most definitely a prominent business player within the international business arena. As such, the author has chosen to do her business in the United States, a nation founded on the fundamental principle of equality and stability. USA is a world power in this era, it is considered by many that she possesses the most power in many aspects and one of these aspects would be in area of their political power. Its political system has got some crucial significant differences compared to the other nations. The United States of America follows a Federal system. This means that authority is split between a central government, national government and the states. The national government is called the Federal Government and the Federal Government has three branches; the first is the Legislative Branch, House of Representatives and Senate. The second one would be the Executive Branch: President (Head of State), Cabinet, Federal Departments and Agencies and the third one would be the Judicial Branch: Supreme Court and the other Federal Courts (Storey, 2007). The President of USA is the head of state, the head of government, the commander-in-chief for all military related issues and the chief diplomat. He controls and manages over the executive branch of the federal government. Within the executive branch, the President holds...

Words: 597 - Pages: 3

Free Essay

Food Safety Issues in China and Taiwan

...countries for analysis: China is one of the world’s largest exporters of food products and food safety issue is pertinent; Taiwan’s food products are exported to 15 major countries such as U.S., China, Germany, Hong Kong, and Malaysia (Wang, 2011), thus food safety issue is serious as well. If these hazardous products were circulated to different countries, the consequences would be widespread. This report provides the background information, analysis of the problem and solutions in the respective countries. In addition, our group will identify the root cause of the problem, generate alternative solutions and decide the best-fit solution. 2. China Food Scandal The China melamine milk scandal was uncovered in 2008, when 14 babies reportedly fell ill in Gansu Province in a span of 2 months ("Timeline: China milk," 2011). The problem was brought to light...

Words: 4735 - Pages: 19

Premium Essay

Corporate Greed

...Corporate greed, by definition, is when a company chooses to place significance on increasing profits in a way that harms employees, consumers and the environment. It occurs when making money becomes the only goal, and the other company’s social responsibility is ignored. There is some debate with companies over whether they are being greedy versus looking for the best business practice. How can one tell if a company’s practice is defined as corporate greed or if the company is just working to reduce costs in order to increase profit growth? How much social responsibility does a company have to society and the environment? An article written by Edmund Bradley, about the problem with corporate greed, gave a perspective on these questions stating that “However greedy or altruistic a business person happens to be, the institutions of the market channel his or her motivation to a social end. Business must serve society in order to thrive,” (Bradley, 2003). In order for a business to grow and expand, they need to make a positive impression on society. Especially in today’s market, with consumers focusing on what companies are doing to the environment and how to find ‘green’ products. Society want to know that the companies making millions of dollars are using their influence and power to do good things in the world around them. Another perspective, however, is that companies have to only focus on the growth and profit of the company. They should work to please shareholders...

Words: 1375 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Ghjgjghj

...at the end of 2002 based on your estimates? 7. Martha’s overall net worth was huge relative to her investment in ImClone. Assuming she did not have inside information, was there any way she could have avoided the appearance of having it? 8. How could Martha have handled this crisis better? 9. Why is insider trading considered harmful? Should insider trading be banned if it assists in moving a stock price to a new equilibrium quickly, so that non-insiders are trading at appropriate prices sooner? 10. If you wished to sell an investment in a company where one of your friends is an insider, or even a significant employee, should you call your friend to advise him you are about to sell? Why, or why not? 5. China’s Tainted Baby Milk Powder: Rumored Control of Online News Discussion of Ethical Issues 1. Given strong profit growth, has there been any damage to Baidu.com’s reputation? 2. What would future reputational damage affect, and how could it be measured? 3. What steps could Baidu.com take to restore its reputation, and what challenges will it have to overcome? 4. Governments throughout the world have been slow to react publicly to serious problems such as SARS, mad cow disease, and now...

Words: 1000 - Pages: 4