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BEIJING : Prime Minister Wen Jiabao vowed Saturday to ensure the 'Made in China' brand was safe for consumers at home and abroad, as a mounting contamination scandal led to a new European Union import ban.
The European Union said Saturday it was banning all imports of Chinese children's products containing milk, such as biscuits and chocolate, with immediate effect.
Although Chinese dairy products like milk and yoghurt have been long banned from the 27-nation bloc, it decided that consumers needed further protection from products containing milk from China.
The EU announced the ban as Beijing scrambled to restore confidence after a toxic milk scandal that has sickened 53,000 children and killed four so far.
China has been struggling to contain the scandal, with countries around the world rushing to ban or restrict its dairy products.
"It's not just food or dairy," Wen said at a World Economic Forum event in the northern city of Tianjin, according to the official Xinhua news agency.
"We will make the entire 'Made in China' brand worry-free and reputable for both the Chinese and the people across the world."
The government said Saturday it had tested 47 brands of milk and yoghurt and detected no trace of melamine, an industrial chemical normally used to make plastics.
China's General Administration of Quality Supervision told AFP Saturday it had checked 296 batches of dairy products from brands across the country's major cities.
"No melamine was detected," the agency said on its website.
On Friday, Hong Kong ordered a recall of two products found to contain the industrial chemical melamine, one a brand of Heinz baby food.
Japan has ordered firms which import dairy products from China to test them for melamine after the chemical was found in four items made by one of its leading food makers.
More than 7,000 tonnes of tainted dairy products have already been removed from shops across China and on Friday, a popular candy brand became the latest victim.
The maker of White Rabbit sweets, given to US president Richard Nixon on a landmark 1972 trip, announced it was halting domestic sales after its products were found to contain melamine.
"Currently, it is extremely important to restore consumer confidence in the country's milk product brands," Chen Deming, Commerce Minister, said Saturday in a statement on the central government website.
"This can only be achieved through our efforts, through effective monitoring and detection."
New cases of children falling ill after drinking tainted milk also continued to emerge in China, with 176 new cases detected in the capital, the Beijing Times reported Saturday.
Authorities in Shanghai also revealed that about five percent of children under three in the city had showed symptoms of possible kidney stones after being fed contaminated milk powder, the China Daily said Friday.
A hospital in Taiwan said three young children had developed kidney stones after drinking Chinese milk formula, and the mother of one of the children had also fallen ill.
Hong Kong has reported five cases of children falling ill from drinking tainted milk.
Chinese scientists said they were developing a chemical substance that could detect melamine quickly and cheaply, and could be used by any dairy farmer, Xinhua reported Saturday.
Professors at Lanzhou University in northwest China told Xinhua the substance made it possible to detect traces of melamine in 20 minutes and would only cost 20 yuan (three dollars), compared to the longer process of laboratory testing.
The university is to develop the substance at the request of the government in Gansu province.
- AFP /ls
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