China Milk Contamination Kept Secret by Authorities

BEIJING (AP/New York Times) -- Chinese authorities kept concerns about the safety of a Shanghai dairy's products secret for nearly a year before announcing last week that the company had been shut for manufacturing contaminated milk, an official said Thursday.

The delay in notifying the public about the tainted products raises questions about the effectiveness of China's efforts to restore confidence in its food industry after several safety scandals in recent years -- including one involving contaminated milk -- that exposed serious flaws in monitoring the nation's food supply.

Food safety authorities in Shanghai found contamination in Shanghai Panda Dairy Co. Ltd.'s products last February and started investigations immediately, an official from a district prosecutor's office said. Chinese authorities said the dairy was one of 22 that produced tainted milk in 2008.

They detained three executives in April, but Shanghai's food safety bureau first told the public of the problem only last week when it shut the dairy. The bureau said the dairy was selling milk powder and condensed milk tainted with the industrial chemical melamine, which can cause kidney stones and kidney failure.

Food safety authorities have not said if anyone has been sickened by consuming tainted milk products produced by Shanghai Panda. Calls to the company rang unanswered Thursday and its Web site was shut down.

Read the full New York Times story.