Chinese Dairy Company Recalls Tainted Milk
Hundreds of cartons of milk contaminated with detergent on plant’s production line.
In another blow to China’s scandal-plagued dairy industry, a Shanghai-based dairy company has recalled hundreds of cartons of milk that were contaminated with a detergent, several news services reported today.
Bright Dairy & Food is recalling a batch of its Ubest-brand milk products after an investigation revealed that the products may have been contaminated with lye, according to Shanghai’s quality and technical supervision bureau.
An investigation conducted by the bureau Wednesday found that food-grade lye that was used to clean pipes had leaked into and contaminated a production line at one of the company's plants on Monday, a bureau spokesman said early Thursday.
The contamination was caused by a mechanical malfunction during regular maintenance procedures, said the spokesman.
The recall comes just weeks after China's top-selling dairy firm, Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group Co, pulled six months' worth of infant formula from shelves due to mercury contamination.
China's milk industry is struggling to restore consumer confidence after a series of scandals, the worst of which was in 2008 when milk and infant formula laced with the industrial chemical melamine killed at least six children and made nearly 300,000 ill.
In the latest incident, the Bright Dairy & Food Co., called Guangming in Chinese, posted a recall notice on its website after customers complained online of bad smelling and discolored liquid in the company's 950 ml cartons (about a quarter gallon) of Ubest milk, state media reported on Thursday.
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