China claims nitrite milk poisoning was deliberate

The state news agency Xinhua said today that police have arrested a couple, who co-rent land with a dairy farmer in Mafang village near Pingliang City.

Business disputes ​

The police alleged that the couple deliberately added nitrite to fresh milk from the farm out of anger over “some unresolved business disputes”​ with the farmer.

Three children died as a result of the nitrite poisoning and 35 others were taken to hospital. The two farms at the centre of the scare have been sealed off for the duration of the investigation.

The scare is the most serious food safety incident to hit the Chinese dairy industry since 2008 when melamine-tainted milk killed six children and sickened 300,000.

The Chinese government has sought to clean up the industry with new food safety laws and tougher enforcement.

Most recently Chinese authorities pulled the licenses of more than half the dairies operating in the country. Only 643 out of the 1,176 dairies in the country were granted production licenses, forcing the rest into temporary closure.

Low consumer confidence ​

But despite these efforts China has struggled to restore consumer confidence.

Chinese consumers have developed a strong preference for imported dairy products – dairy imports have more than doubled since 2008.

In its last report on the global dairy market at the end of 2010, Rabobank said China would almost certainly be the world’s biggest dairy importer in 2010. Chinese buyers have dominated buying at Fonterra’s globalDairyTrade auctions, according to the bank.

With a willingness to outbid others, they have played a major role in the increases in global dairy prices over the past year.