China finds 170 tons of infected milk powders

China has found another 170 more tons of infected milk powder in an emergency clearout that has made it increasingly clear many products revealed in the country's 2008 milk scandal were repackaged for sale as an alternative of destroyed.

The increasing number of cases in recent weeks challenges the government's previous promise to renovate its approach to food safety after hundreds of thousands of children in that scandal were dismayed by milk products infected with an industrial chemical. At least six children died.
Contaminated milk products have recently emerged in China's largest city, Shanghai, and in the provinces of Shaanxi, Shandong, Guizhou, Liaoning, Jilin and Hebei.

In the most recent discovery, officials recalled more than 170 tons of milk powder contaminated by the industrial chemical melamine and closed two dairy companies in the northern district of Ningxia, the China Daily newspaper reported Monday.

The report said officials detained 72 tons of the powder but were still looking for the rest, which had been repackaged by the Ningxia Tiantian Dairy Co. Ltd. and sold to factories in the neighboring region of Inner Mongolia and the bustling southern provinces of Guangdong and Fujian.

Instead, it issued guidelines on how to destroy the contaminated products, suggesting they be burned in incinerators or buried in landfills.