Editorials

Melamine mess

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-07-10 06:50

In 2008, when Sanlu and its likes poisoned the nation with melamine-contaminated milk, they told us the "severe crackdown" would relieve us of all our worries.

Earlier this year, when we were taken aback by the re-emergence of melamine in dairy products packed in 2009 and subsequent cover-ups, we were promised an explanation, and told to "rest assured", because a "strict and thorough" cleansing was on its way.

We were even given reassurance that all the stock of melamine left by Sanlu and other dairy companies in 2008 had been destroyed.

Now, melamine-contaminated milk has again been detected in at least three provinces. And the toxic material is suspected to have come from stocks of the Sanlu days that "were not completely destroyed".

Related readings:  Melamine resurfaces in dairy products  Melamine tainted milk re-emerges in NW China plant  UN food safety meeting to consider melamine limit  New rules ban melamine in dairy products

What are we supposed to say about what the "competent authorities" had said? We would not have thought about that promised explanation had things not come to such a pass. But now we need it, very badly.

First of all, we need a full and clear account of what the food-safety watchdogs, at national and local levels, have done about melamine.

We know melamine is not the only poisonous substance threatening our national food chain. But we wonder why an expansive, and expensive, safety guarantee network cannot keep even one single threat under check. We need proof that those paid to do the job are worth their salt.

In particular, we need to know the exact source of the newly uncovered melamine - is it, as suspected, a remnant from the Sanlu days, or from a whole new batch? Besides, we need complete information on the whereabouts of finished products.

No melamine or contaminated product should be allowed to do further harm. Milk products with 500 times more melamine content above State standards can result in lethal consequences.

The ghost of melamine should not linger. No promising national industry deserves protection if it disregards life and public health.

(China Daily 07/10/2010 page5)