Vietnam finds tainted milk from China

By Associated Press - via UNCENSORED Yahoo! News
October 07, 2008

Vietnam finds 23 tainted milk products imported from China

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) -- Melamine contamination has been found in 23 milk products imported into Vietnam from China, officials said Tuesday, intensifying consumer worries about tainted milk products.

Five more products tested positive for the industrial chemical, which is usually used in making plastics and fertilizers. So far authorities have found 23 contaminated products after testing 400 samples of milk and milk products, Vietnam's vice minister of health Cao Minh Quang said.

About 300 tons of products, mostly imported from China, have been recalled, said the ministry's chief inspector, Tran Quang Trung.

"Milk and milk products contaminated with melamine have been brought under control," Quang said. "Our top priority is to protect the health of people, especially children."

Many Vietnamese customers have already stopped buying milk and milk products after reports of contaminated milk emerged.

"I have stopped buying milk for my 3-year-old son. Now we have to find other kinds of food to feed him," said Nguyen Mai Huong, 33, a state employee. "There are too many kinds of milk, and we don't know which one is safe."

Vietnamese dairy farmers are suffering as a result of the milk boycott because factories are refusing to buy milk from them.

Nguyen Thi Mai, a dairy farmer in Phu Dong village just outside Hanoi, said she has had to give away or throw away milk since factories stopped buying it six days ago.

"I don't know what is melamine, but it's killing us," she said.

China pledged to improve food safety Monday and authorities detained six more people in the country's contaminated milk scandal. The head of China's quality watchdog said the country was also stepping up checks on its exports.

Liberia banned imports of Chinese milk products Tuesday amid worldwide concern about tainted milk powder from China.

In a radio announcement, acting Commerce Minister Frederick Norkeh called the ban "a precautionary measure" taken because of what he called reports that the contaminated milk was being shipped to African countries. He did not provide details.

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