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BEIJING - A chemical blamed for killing two infants in China has now been found in 69 brands of baby formula nationwide, state television said Tuesday, in an apparent dramatic escalation of the scandal.
The government has ordered a halt to the sale of the 69 milk powder brands tainted with the chemical melamine, said the report by state-run CCTV, adding the products were made by 22 different companies spread across China.
Tainted milk powder has sickened more than 1,200 infants so far across several provinces in a scandal that erupted last week but had originally focused solely on the Sanlu brand.
CCTV said in its nightly news broadcast all 69 brands, which included Sanlu, had been pulled from shelves.
"In order to ensure the safety of the milk products, the relevant government departments have pulled them from shelves, sealed them, recalled them and destroyed them," CCTV said in its broadcast.
The report said China's top product-quality watchdog would dispatch inspectors to all milk-product manufacturers nationwide in a bid to contain the spreading health threat.
It said the moves were meant to "uncover the causes, pursue those responsible and severely deal with them in accordance with the law."
The initial scare had prompted a nationwide probe and the additional tainted brands appeared to have been detected through testing linked to that investigation.
The government has said milk collectors deliberately contaminated the milk, possibly to boost its protein content, according to state media reports.
Sanlu, however, had blamed dairy farmers.
Police have arrested two more suspects, state press said Tuesday, bringing the total to four arrests, in reports that warned more sick babies were expected.
Police in Hebei province said that in the two latest arrests, both suspects confessed to adding melamine to milk, Xinhua news agency said.
The 22 companies mentioned by CCTV included Torador Dairy Industry, a China-Australia joint venture in the northern city of Tianjian. Calls to Torador on Tuesday evening went unanswered.
The companies affected also included Guangdong Yashili Group, the report said, adding that the firm has exported its products to Bangladesh, Myanmar and Yemen.
However, it added that tests of the Yashili products made for export had shown no melamine traces.
Melamine, which is used for making plastics and glues, is being blamed for causing kidney stones in the affected babies.
Normally rare in babies, kidney stones give rise to a range of infant health risks.
The two infant deaths occurred in May and July, the health ministry said on Monday.
The government has criticised Sanlu for not going public sooner with the health concerns, which began to emerge as early as March when babies fell ill in northwestern Gansu province.
Tests in early August began to show melamine in the product.
Sanlu, which publicly apologised on Monday for the scandal, has fired its chairwoman and general manager Tian Wenhua, state-run China News Service said on Tuesday.
The scandal is the latest to rock China's food industry, which has been tarnished by a series of health scares over dangerous products in recent years.
Andrew Ferrier, the head of New Zealand dairy giant Fonterra, which owns 43 per cent of Sanlu, said Monday Fonterra knew of the contamination in early August and pushed for an immediate recall but that Sanlu was slowed by Chinese rules.
New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark said her government learned of the contamination problem on September 5, then "blew the whistle" three days later by informing Beijing after local Chinese officials refused to act.
- AFP/ir
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