Today, authorities from the central province of Hunan
are due to report to the Ministry of Health on the discovery of
more fake baby milk powder after one baby was diagnosed with
malnutrition in Zhuzhou City, according to a Beijing
News report.
"The wholesale dealer was warned not to sell fake
milk powder during last year's nationwide campaign," said Guo
Jun'an, deputy director of Zhuzhou Health Bureau’s Healthcare
Supervision Institute, referring to the response to similar
products’ discovery across the country in 2003 and 2004.
Qi Yongming, father of the victim, sent his
6-month-old daughter to Zhuzhou Women and Children Healthcare
Center on February 26 after she had cried continually for a
month.
He said the girl was losing her hair and gradually
lost energy after they started using the fake milk powder. The case
was first reported by a local newspaper on April 9.
Liao Jiren, a doctor with the hospital, said, "The
baby is suffering from severe malnutrition.” She weighs no more
than 5 kilograms and has an enlarged head from edema, known locally
as "big-head syndrome.”
A sample of the powder was found to contain 1.74
percent protein and 12.8 percent fat, far less than the national
standard of 12-18 percent protein and 20 percent fat, the Zhuzhou
Center for Disease Control said.
The baby had consumed about 20 bags of the
“Zhengmeng” brand milk powder since last December and began to show
symptoms of malnutrition and stunted growth soon afterward.
He Xuehui, the merchant who sold the powder to Qi,
was questioned by local police and said he bought 100 bags of it
from a vendor in the Gaoqiao, Hunan’s largest food wholesale
market, in the provincial capital Changsha.
The original supplier has disappeared and is still
being sought by authorities, said Guo.
According to He's accounts, he purchased the
"Zhengmeng" powder for the first time in March last year, then
suspended sale of the item. But it reemerged on his shelves last
December, said Wang Guohe from the supervision institute.
Qi bought it for 16 yuan (US$1.9) per bag the first
two times, then was given a discounted price for each five bag
purchase of 12 yuan (US$1.5) per bag.
The storekeeper admitted he had bought each bag for
only 5.5 yuan (US$0.67) from the dealer in Gaoqiao.
"The 'Zhengmeng' powder was made in Taishun, a
county of Wenzhou City in east China's Zhejiang
Province," said Guo, "The manufacturer was ordered to stop
production last year and a ban is still in place."
The product on the market is presumed to either be
from last year’s stocks or newly produced by another unknown
manufacturer, insiders said.
Further medical checks on the baby are being
conducted, which will serve as key evidence to sue the product
dealers, Zheng Xingang from the Zhuzhou Health Bureau said
yesterday.
(China Daily April 15, 2005)