Today, authorities from the central province of Hunan are due to report to the Ministry of Health on the discovery of more fake baby milk powder after one baby was diagnosed with malnutrition in Zhuzhou City, according to a Beijing News report.

 

"The wholesale dealer was warned not to sell fake milk powder during last year's nationwide campaign," said Guo Jun'an, deputy director of Zhuzhou Health Bureau’s Healthcare Supervision Institute, referring to the response to similar products’ discovery across the country in 2003 and 2004.

 

Qi Yongming, father of the victim, sent his 6-month-old daughter to Zhuzhou Women and Children Healthcare Center on February 26 after she had cried continually for a month.

 

He said the girl was losing her hair and gradually lost energy after they started using the fake milk powder. The case was first reported by a local newspaper on April 9.

 

Liao Jiren, a doctor with the hospital, said, "The baby is suffering from severe malnutrition.” She weighs no more than 5 kilograms and has an enlarged head from edema, known locally as "big-head syndrome.”

 

A sample of the powder was found to contain 1.74 percent protein and 12.8 percent fat, far less than the national standard of 12-18 percent protein and 20 percent fat, the Zhuzhou Center for Disease Control said.

 

The baby had consumed about 20 bags of the “Zhengmeng” brand milk powder since last December and began to show symptoms of malnutrition and stunted growth soon afterward.

 

He Xuehui, the merchant who sold the powder to Qi, was questioned by local police and said he bought 100 bags of it from a vendor in the Gaoqiao, Hunan’s largest food wholesale market, in the provincial capital Changsha.

 

The original supplier has disappeared and is still being sought by authorities, said Guo.

 

According to He's accounts, he purchased the "Zhengmeng" powder for the first time in March last year, then suspended sale of the item. But it reemerged on his shelves last December, said Wang Guohe from the supervision institute.

 

Qi bought it for 16 yuan (US$1.9) per bag the first two times, then was given a discounted price for each five bag purchase of 12 yuan (US$1.5) per bag.

 

The storekeeper admitted he had bought each bag for only 5.5 yuan (US$0.67) from the dealer in Gaoqiao.

 

"The 'Zhengmeng' powder was made in Taishun, a county of Wenzhou City in east China's Zhejiang Province," said Guo, "The manufacturer was ordered to stop production last year and a ban is still in place."

 

The product on the market is presumed to either be from last year’s stocks or newly produced by another unknown manufacturer, insiders said.

 

Further medical checks on the baby are being conducted, which will serve as key evidence to sue the product dealers, Zheng Xingang from the Zhuzhou Health Bureau said yesterday.

 

(China Daily April 15, 2005)