China baby milk scare scandal

Chinese officials have ordered widespread checks on dairy products and a recall of tainted items after thousands of babies became ill. Liz Kennedy reports.

For more than a week, worried parents have crowded hospitals across the country, all hoping that urgent medical treatment will be enough to overcome the tainted milk that’s in their child's system. While thousands of babies have become sick, thousands more are still at risk, raising fears that the death toll could rise as more cases are diagnosed.

The scandal first emerged last week when the Sanlu Group, China’s biggest baby milk maker, announced that some babies had developed kidney stones and complications after drinking milk made from powder tainted with melamine. As cases of contamination soared, the Chinese government took immediate action. And late on Friday, officials said that all children who’d consumed tainted milk would be given free treatment.

The position that China now finds itself in is a result of unscrupulous farmers and negligent food companies. Tests show that in an attempt to cut costs, the nitrogen-rich compound melamine was added to water down milk in order to pass quality inspections. Contamination was thought to be restricted to powdered baby milk. But officials have confirmed that 10% of liquid milk from three of China’s dairies was also tainted with melamine. The companies have been named as Mengniu Dairy Group, Yili Industrial Group and Bright Dairy.

With uncertainty about China’s milk production growing by the day, Malaysia has now joined neighboring Singapore in the ban of all Chinese milk imports. And as the European Union and the US demanded an explanation, Chinese quality officials have been trying to regain consumer confidence, saying that most milk was safe. With a string of food scares in recent years, it may take some time to restore their trust. Liz Kennedy, Reuters.

参考中文翻译：

数千婴儿因食用奶粉患病后，中国官方下令对奶制品进行大范围的检查，召回污染奶制品。

一周多以来，全国各地的医院里都聚集着忧心忡忡的父母，希望紧急医疗措施能够解决问题奶粉给他们的婴儿造成的问题。数千名婴儿已经患病，还有数千名仍然处于危险期，越来越多的病例被确诊，增加了人们对死亡数字上升的恐惧。

丑闻上周首次传出，中国最大的婴儿奶粉制造商之一，三鹿集团宣布，他们生产的奶粉受到三聚氰胺污染，导致婴儿肾结石等一系列症状。随着病例增加，中国政府采取紧急措施。周五，官方宣布，所有受到污染奶粉影响的婴儿可以接受免费治疗。

中国政府调查结果显示，这一问题是由于奶农的肆无忌惮和食品公司的疏忽造成的。测试显示，三聚氰胺含氮量高，为了降低成本，通过质量检测，奶农像牛奶中加入三聚氰胺。中国官方确认，来自中国三家奶制品商10%的液态奶还有三聚氰胺。分别是蒙牛，伊利和光明。

由于中国奶制品的不确定性与日俱增，麻辣西亚紧随新加坡之后，禁止从中国进口奶制品。欧盟和美国方面要求中国给出合理解释，中国质检官员试图挽回消费者信心，表示大多数牛奶是安全的。由于近年来一系列的食品安全问题，要重树消费者的信任还需要一定的时间。