Hit by another milk scandal
Consumer tolerance of food safety issues is wearing thin and dairy firms are unlikely to survive another scandal.
DAYS after yet another poisonous milk scandal broke out in China, the country's leading dairy producers announced that they would raise the prices of some of their products starting tomorrow.
The price hike will no doubt be seen as an ultimate challenge to public tolerance of locally-produced milk, which has been mired with far too many cases of food safety breaches in the past few years.
Last Saturday, China's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) published the results of a random dairy products check which found the amount of aflatoxin M1 in the 250ml milk packets produced by Mengniu Dairy Co Ltd on Oct 18 in Meishan was 140% more than the levels permitted.
The 250ml milk manufactured by Fujian Changfu Dairy Co Ltd on Oct 8 was also found to have exceeded the levels by almost 80%.
Aflatoxin M1 which can potentially cause cancer was said to be found in the animal feed given to the cows at the very upstream production line of both companies.
The top three dairy firms of Mengniu, Sanyuan Group and Yili Group, notified supermarket operators and retailers of the price increase in view of rising costs.
Mengniu's chocolate milk and several other products would cost about two yuan (RM1) more while the fresh milk and yoghurt as well as 13 other products produced by Sanyuan would also be about two yuan more.
Yili said that the increase would be substantial in Beijing and there was no immediate plans to raise the prices in other cities and provinces.
Market analysts predicted that other dairy makers would have no choice but to follow suit in the face of competition.
In its editorial, Beijing News questioned the real reasons behind the increase in dairy products saying it was not merely due to rising cost of raw materials but rather the coming double festivities of New Year and Chinese New Year.
"From the current market outlook, the inflation rate in China has been under control and on a downward trend as the government's major task is to control the prices of goods.
"If dairy products take the lead to kick-start a new round of price hikes at the beginning of 2012, it will prompt other consumer producers to do the same.
The departments concerned should be more alert with this happening," the daily said.
It said the authorities should look into the collective move by the main industry players to increase the prices of their products as it might violate the anti-monopoly law which prohibits inter-related businesses from reaching an agreement to fix or change their products' prices.
China Daily said that the reputation of China's dairy industry had been dealt another heavy blow.
It said Mengniu conveniently attributed the high levels of aflatoxin M1 to mildewed feed to cows on its rangeland in Sichuan, but the AQSIQ's tests results showed that Mengniu's quality check process failed completely, as unlike melamine, aflatoxin M1 had long been part of China's quality tests for dairy products.
"In its 2010 annual report, Mengniu boasted that each pack of its milk went through nine processes, 36 monitoring stages and 105 tests before sale, and carries quality information for every stage of the production process.
"Unfortunately, the latest scandal suggests all these claims are nothing more than empty promises.
"Mengniu should take this as a warning and take concrete action to strengthen its quality control.
"Consumers' tolerance of food safety issues is wearing thin and the dairy maker's reputation is unlikely to survive another scandal," it said.
The latest food safety scare did not escape heated discussions among the Internet community as the nation had been hit by a series of food quality incidents this year starting from the seizure of pork products tainted with the fat-burning clenbuterol in March.
It was followed by the sale of corn buns in Shanghai which were made of banned colouring additives allergic to certain consumers especially children; the arrest of a factory owner in a remote fishing village in Guangdong province who produced fake vermicelli made of paraffin wax and black ink; and the so-called "blood-red nest" which was allegedly sourced from Malaysia and contained high nitrite levels.
The events resulted in one of China's biggest crackdowns which saw the arrest of 32 people in connection with a major underground network involving the collection, sale, refining and distribution of illegal recycled cooking oil in 14 provinces.
A Netizen said that there was no guarantee of food safety in every dairy product and the Mengniu's aflatoxin M1 incident was simply a tip of the iceberg.
"Basically, I do not drink milk anymore as it is not safe. I only drink soy bean which I plant by myself in my own yard! said another Netizen named "Simple and Happy".
Another blogger said that he would not object to a reasonable price hike but the dairy company would have to ensure the quality of their products before doing so.
"Let's not drink milk anymore. Go and buy a soy bean maker and grind your own soy bean drink," a Netizen named "Chellven" said.
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