Grab and Keel

The latest AP news on the Chinese milk scandal. The figure for sickened children has more than doubled at nearly 12,900. Be sure and read the whole AP story, linked below:

Sep 21, 10:24 PM EDT

Nearly 12,900 Chinese children sick from milk

By SCOTT McDONALD 

Associated Press Writer

Latest News

Nearly 12,900 Chinese children sick from milk

China’s dairy farmers fret as milk scandal grows

Ask AP: Candidate languages, emergency personnel

BEIJING (AP) — China said Sunday the number of children sickened by baby formula tainted with the banned industrial chemical melamine has doubled to nearly 12,900 as the government confronts a scandal over widespread contamination of the milk supply.

More than 80 percent of the 12,892 children hospitalized in recent weeks were 2 years old or younger, the Health Ministry said in a statement posted on its Web site late Sunday. Four children have died.

[…Since the problem of tainted milk products became public knowledge less than two weeks ago, the crisis has spread to include almost all of China’s biggest dairy companies. Their products have been pulled from stores around the country, and in other places such as the self-governing Chinese territories of Hong Kong and Macau. Starbucks stopped offering milk in its 300 outlets in China.

Hong Kong’s two main supermarket chains said Sunday they were recalling milk powder made by Swiss manufacturer Nestle after a newspaper reported it contains melamine.

Spokeswomen for both companies said they acted as a precaution after Hong Kong’s Apple Daily reported Sunday that tests it commissioned showed that Nestle milk powder made in China’s northeastern Heilongjiang province contained melamine.

Nestle’s Hong Kong office did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment. Calls after work hours to its Beijing office and Beijing hot line went unanswered.

But the company said in a statement last Wednesday that none of its infant formula and milk powder products contained melamine. “Nestle can hence assure its … customers that its products are safe for consumption,” it said…]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_CHINA_BABY_FORMULA_RECALL?SITE=CODER&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

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